Healthy Diet Tied to Lower Heart Disease Risk and Longer Life in Cancer Survivors

Eating a healthy diet is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and death among cancer survivors, according to a study published in JACC: Advances, a journal of the American College of Cardiology. The analysis, drawn from more than 8,700 cancer survivors in the UK Biobank who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start, found that several widely recognized healthy dietary patterns were linked to fewer cardiovascular events over roughly 12 years of follow-up, during which 1,116 participants experienced a cardiovascular event. Heart disease is the leading cause of non-cancer death among cancer survivors, a population that continues to grow as cancer detection and treatment improve.

The researchers compared how closely participants adhered to seven established healthy dietary patterns: the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay), the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010, the DASH diet, the Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index, a reversed energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index, and a healthy low-fat diet. All of these patterns showed protective associations against cardiovascular events. The one exception was a healthy low-carbohydrate diet, which showed no significant benefit in this cohort. Beyond overall cardiovascular risk, the study found pattern-specific associations: higher adherence to the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 was associated with a lower risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke, while the DASH diet was associated with a lower risk of heart failure.

The associations extended to survival and longevity. The MIND diet yielded the lowest hazard ratio for all-cause mortality among the patterns examined and showed the largest gains in life expectancy. Participants with the highest adherence to a healthy diet gained an estimated 1.66 to 3.32 more years of life expectancy than those with low adherence. These are observational findings from a cohort study, so they show association rather than proof of causation, and the estimates reflect average differences across adherence groups within the studied population rather than guaranteed outcomes for any individual patient.

The study’s context matters for clinical practice. As cancer detection and treatment improve, more people are living with a history of cancer and facing a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including survivors who never received chemotherapy or radiation. “Given the adverse impact of CVD on patients’ survival and quality of life among cancer survivors, identifying prognostic factors is an urgent need to pinpoint high-risk subgroups and guide targeted clinical management within cardio-oncology care,” said Yang-Xin Chen, the study’s senior author and a clinician in the Department of Cardiology at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

Chen emphasized that the results do not point to a single dietary prescription. “Our findings suggest that the cardiovascular benefits of diet in cancer survivors are not confined to one ‘ideal’ diet but are observed across several evidence-based healthy dietary patterns, supporting a flexible rather than prescriptive nutritional approach in cancer survivorship care,” Chen said in the manuscript.

Subject of Research: Associations between healthy dietary patterns and cardiovascular disease risk among cancer survivors

Article Title: Healthy diet may lower heart disease risk after cancer

Article References: Healthy diet may lower heart disease risk after cancer. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: cancer survivors, cardiovascular disease, diet, Mediterranean diet, MIND diet, DASH diet, UK Biobank, life expectancy, cardio-oncology, nutrition, JACC: Advances, Healthy