Cardio-oncology & other

Heart Failure and Cancer: Incidence and Mortality Patterns, A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Eur J Heart FailPublished Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomised trials

Pooled result · Incidence of any cancerResult — go to the resultHazard ratio 1.33 95% CI 1.14–1.54

Authors' conclusion

HF is associated with a higher incidence of cancer, although with marked heterogeneity among studies and cancer types.

Study context

Population
Individuals with and without heart failure (HF), reporting cancer incidence and/or mortality during follow-up
Participants
8,979,195 individuals12 studies
Comparison
HF vs no HF
Outcome
Incidence of any cancer

Pooled result

As reported in the abstract

Hazard ratio

1.33

95% CI 1.14–1.54

HFvs Non-HF
HR 1.33 (95% CI 1.14–1.54)

Further pooled results

Site-specific cancer incidence

Lung cancer, HR
1.70 (95% CI 1.26-2.29)
Colorectal cancer, HR
1.28 (95% CI 1.11-1.48)
Breast cancer, HR
1.19 (95% CI 1.04-1.37)
Prostate cancer: no increased incidence

Cancer incidence by analytical strategy

Matched HF and non-HF cohorts reported higher risk estimates than covariate adjustment without matching

Mortality

Mortality data sparse and heterogeneous

Original publication

Heart Failure and Cancer: Incidence and Mortality Patterns, A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Eur J Heart Fail. Published 25 August 2026. doi:10.1093/ejhf/xuag265

Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →

Get them every week

New studies on this topic in My Week and in your Monday e-mail.

We e-mail you a sign-in link and a code. No password, no spam.