Cardio-oncology & otherCohort study
Markers of Autonomic Function and Cancer Mortality Risk in Healthy Adults
- Cooper Center Longitudinal Study
- sex-stratified when significant interactions were present
- adjusted for age, clinical and lifestyle factors, and cardiorespiratory fitness
Authors' conclusion
In apparently healthy adults, multiple noninvasive markers of autonomic function were associated with cancer mortality, independent of cardiorespiratory fitness.
Study context
- Population
- Healthy adults who completed a preventive medicine examination with a treadmill test between 1971 and 201826.8% women
- Participants
- 75,308 adults
- Exposure
- Autonomic markers and cancer mortality
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Cancer deaths · median follow-up of 21.9 years
cancer deaths
3,855
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | HR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| All-site cancer mortality, heart rate reserve | 1.05 (1.02–1.07) | |
| All-site cancer mortality, heart rate recovery at 5 minutes | 1.06 (1.03–1.09) | |
| Cancer mortality, resting heart rate, by sex | 1.04 (1.01–1.08) | |
| 0.512Hazard ratio (log scale) |
- All-site cancer mortality, heart rate reserve: lower heart rate reserve associated with higher all-site cancer mortality
- All-site cancer mortality, heart rate recovery at 5 minutes: lower heart rate recovery associated with higher all-site cancer mortality
- Cancer mortality, resting heart rate, by sex: higher resting heart rate related to higher cancer mortality in men
Cancer mortality, resting heart rate, by sex
- not associated in women
Cancer mortality, systolic blood pressure response, by sex
- associations stronger in women
Site-specific cancer mortality
- associations particularly pronounced for lung cancer
Original publication
Markers of Autonomic Function and Cancer Mortality Risk in Healthy Adults. JACC Adv. Published 18 September 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacadv.2026.103242
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it