Colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease: double the burden when it comes to your health-related quality of life?

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of comorbid cardiovascular disease (CVD) among patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) has increased in the last decades. Previous studies have focused on the impact of comorbid CVD on clinical outcomes in CRC, while its impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is understudied. This study, therefore, relates (new-onset) CVD to HRQoL (i.e., physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, and two CVD-related symptom scales fatigue and dyspnea) in a two-year follow-up study among CRC patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Newly diagnosed CRC patients from four Dutch hospitals were eligible for participation. Patients ( = 327) completed questions on HRQoL (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the presence and timing of CVDs before initial treatment (baseline) and one and two years after diagnosis.

RESULTS

CRC patients with comorbid CVD at cancer diagnosis ( = 72, 22%) reported significantly worse physical functioning at 2-year follow-up compared with patients who never had comorbid CVD ( < .05). CRC patients with new-onset CVD ( = 36, 11%) reported worse global QoL, worse role functioning, and more fatigue at 1 and 2-year follow-up compared with patients who never had comorbid CVD. In addition, they reported more dyspnea at baseline and worse physical functioning at 2-year follow-up ( < .05). Finally, patients with new-onset CVD reported worse global quality of life at 1-year follow-up and worse role functioning and more fatigue at 2-year follow-up, compared with patients with comorbid CVD at cancer diagnosis ( < .05). All significant differences between the three groups were of clinical relevance.

CONCLUSIONS

CRC patients with CVD, specifically those with new-onset CVD, reported a significantly and clinically relevant worse HRQoL compared with those who never had comorbid CVD. These findings seem to indicate, although the number is small, that CRC patients might have cardiovascular needs that need to be addressed and that multidisciplinary care is recommended. Larger studies are needed to confirm this.