Families of cancer patients are almost a third more likely to suffer a potentially deadly heart condition a year after their relative’s diagnosis, grim research has suggested.
Experiencing a loved one receive a diagnosis is often stressful and traumatic for the entire family.
But US scientists who tracked more than 150,000 relatives found they had a 28 per cent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease a year later.
They also had a 10 per cent higher likelihood of developing a psychological illness.
Experts today blamed the heightened risk on financial pressures and the emotional impact of treatment, urging health professionals to take these findings into account.
Experiencing a loved one receive a diagnosis is often stressful and traumatic for the entire family. Pictured, bowel cancer campaigner Dame Deborah James with her mother (centre) and daughter. Last year, her mother Heather James told The Times: ‘I think we’re all coping. Well, I didn’t last year. I had a real panic-wobble on the anniversary of her death’
Pictured, Dame Deborah James with her husband, two children and the Prince of Wales in 2022
While some warning signs are easy to spot — such as severe chest pain — others are more vague and hard to pinpoint
It also comes just months after charities warned the NHS was suffering its ‘worst heart care crisis in living memory’.
Dr Mouneeb Choudry, study lead author and expert in urology at Mayo Clinic said: ‘A diagnosis of cancer is a life-changing event for patients and their families.
‘With our group’s unique access to the Utah Population Database, we were able to create multi-generational networks highlighting the impact of a cancer diagnosis on families.
‘As health care professionals, we should take a multidisciplinary approach to addressing the stress of a cancer diagnosis by helping mitigate financial toxicity, treatment burden, and emotional impact on both the patient and their family.’
In the study, the researchers from the University of Utah assessed the health data of 77.938 relatives and spouses of almost 50,000 patients who had been diagnosed with cancer between 1990 and 2015.
They compared this against 81,022 relatives and spouses of nearly 250,000 individuals who did not receive a cancer diagnosis.
The scientists found 7.1 per cent of relatives overall were diagnosed with a psychological illness within 5 years of a diagnosis, with the figure at 7.6 per cent for cardiovascular illness.
After a year the had a 28 per cent higher risk of cardiovascular disease. This stood at 16 and 14 per cent respectively after three and five years.
There was also a 10 per cent higher likelihood of developing a psychological condition after a year.
This dropped to five and four per cent after three and five years.
Writing in the journal Cancer, the researchers warned that parents of children with cancer experienced the highest risks — nearly 4-times higher at 1-year compared with other relatives.
Kidney and bladder cancer diagnosis also appeared to be most stressful, they added with testicular cancer the least.
It comes as data earlier this year revealed that premature deaths from cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, have hit their highest level in more than a decade.
Cases of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes among the under-75s had tumbled since the 1960s thanks to plummeting smoking rates, advanced surgical techniques and breakthroughs such as stents and statins.
But now, rising obesity rates, and its catalogue of associated health problems like high blood pressure and diabetes, are thought to be one of the major contributing factors.
This chart shows the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease in the under 75s in England (blue bars) which is the number of deaths per 100,000 people as well as sheer number of deaths (red line). Medical breakthroughs and advanced screening techniques helped lower these figures from 2004, but progress began to stall in the early 2010s before reversing in the last few years of data
Slow ambulance response times for category 2 calls in England — which includes suspected heart attacks and strokes — as well as long waits for tests and treatment have also been blamed for the rise, which is also being felt in younger adults.
Despite claims from anti-vaxxers, cardiologists say fears that Covid vaccines might have fuelled an increase in heart problems are way off the mark.
Catching cancer early, when it’s most treatable, can boost survival odds up to eight-fold, data also shows.
More than 320,000 people in England — or 900 a day — are diagnosed with cancer each year, with prostate, breast, bowel and lung the most common types.
But NHS cancer services are repeatedly fail to achieve their targets.
Figures released last month showed NHS England met just one of its three cancer diagnosis targets.
Of the 273,810 urgent cancer referrals made by GPs in June, 76.3 per cent were diagnosed or had the disease ruled out within 28 days. The target is 75 per cent.
Just over two-thirds (67.4 per cent) of patients started their first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral.
Health service guidelines state 85 per cent of cancer patients should be treated within this timeframe.
