Evaluation of general and coronary atherosclerosis and malignant disease demonstrates inverse correlations for specific cancer types as well as cancer in general.

CONTEXT: Historical data has shown that cancer in general has been associated with less atherosclerosis while recently several studies have demonstrated more heterogeneous relations. However, most investigations were carried out clinically or radiographically and updated exhaustive, comprehensive autopsy studies are lacking. In our study, we aimed to assess the relationship between malignancy and grade of atherosclerosis in different locations (general, coronary) in a large study population over the course of 14 years.

METHODS: 2370 patients (autopsy reports) were analyzed retrospectively in regard to various parameters including demographics, organ weights, distribution and severity of atherosclerosis and presence or absence of malignancy.

RESULTS: Our study shows that malignant disease is usually associated with less general and coronary atherosclerosis (p=0.002 and p<0.001). Especially breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer as well as lymphomas/lymphoid leukaemia and sarcomas were associated with significantly less general and coronary AS (p-values<0.001-0.031). In addition, a positive correlation between coronary atherosclerosis and heart weight could be detected (ρ=0.302, p<0.001). As a common observation, male sex was associated with increased severity of general and coronary atherosclerosis in both cancer and non-cancer groups (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that an inverse correlation between atherosclerosis and cancer in general is still sound today despite tremendous changes and advances in therapy strategies and diagnostics. Additionally, we could highlight that the effect was most pronounced in breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, sarcomas and lymphomas/lymphoid leukaemia.