Association of frailty with the incidence risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus in long-term cancer survivors: a prospective cohort study

• Published in: BMC medicine Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 74
• Main Authors: Cao, Xingqi, Yang, Zhenqing, Li, Xueqin, Chen, Chen, Hoogendijk, Emiel O, Zhang, Jingyun, Yao, Nengliang Aaron, Ma, Lina, Zhang, Yawei, Zhu, Yong, Zhang, Xuehong, Du, Yuxian, Wang, Xiaofeng, Wu, Xifeng, Gill, Thomas M, Liu, Zuyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 24.02.2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Aged; Aging; Biobanks; Cancer; Cancer Survivors; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Cohort analysis; Comorbidity; Confidence intervals; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent); Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - complications; Educational attainment; Ethnicity; Frail Elderly; Frailty; Frailty - diagnosis; Health aspects; Health care; Health hazards; Health risks; Health services; Heart diseases; Humans; Incidence; Indicators; Medical prognosis; Melanoma; Missing data; Neoplasms - complications; Phenotypes; Prevention; Primary care; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Regression models; Risk; Risk factors; Self report; Sensitivity analysis; Skin cancer; Socioeconomic factors; Statistical analysis; Survival; Type 2 diabetes; Type 2 diabetes mellitus; United Kingdom; England; Scotland; United Kingdom > UK; Wales; Cancer survivors; Aging; Cardiovascular disease; Frailty; Type 2 diabetes mellitus
• ISSN: 1741-7015; 1741-7015
• DOI: 10.1186/s12916-023-02774-1

Comorbidities among cancer survivors remain a serious healthcare burden and require appropriate management. Using two widely used frailty indicators, this study aimed to evaluate whether frailty was associated with the incidence risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among long-term cancer survivors. We included 13,388 long-term cancer survivors (diagnosed with cancer over 5 years before enrolment) free of CVD and 6101 long-term cancer survivors free of T2DM, at the time of recruitment (aged 40-69 years), from the UK Biobank. Frailty was assessed by the frailty phenotype (FP_Frailty, range: 0-5) and the frailty index (FI_Frailty, range: 0-1) at baseline. The incident CVD and T2DM were ascertained through linked hospital data and primary care data, respectively. The associations were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression models. Compared with non-frail participants, those with pre-frailty (FP_Frailty [met 1-2 of the components]: hazard ratio [HR]=1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05, 1.32; FI_Frailty [0.10< FI ≤0.21]: HR=1.51, 95% CI: 1.32, 1.74) and frailty (FP_Frailty [met ≥3 of the components]: HR=2.12, 95% CI: 1.73, 2.60; FI_Frailty [FI >0.21]: HR=2.19, 95% CI: 1.85, 2.59) had a significantly higher risk of CVD in the multivariable-adjusted model. A similar association of FI_Frailty with the risk of incident T2DM was observed. We failed to find such an association for FP_Frailty. Notably, the very early stage of frailty (1 for FP_Frailty and 0.1-0.2 for FI_Frailty) was also positively associated with the risk of CVD and T2DM (FI_Frailty only). A series of sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the findings. Frailty, even in the very early stage, was positively associated with the incidence risk of CVD and T2DM among long-term cancer survivors, although discrepancies existed between frailty indicators. While the validation of these findings is required, they suggest that routine monitoring, prevention, and interventive programs of frailty among cancer survivors may help to prevent late comorbidities and, eventually, improve their quality of life. Especially, interventions are recommended to target those at an early stage of frailty when healthcare resources are limited.