Large-Scale CT Study Suggest an Increased Cancer Risk for Patients with a High Coronary Calcium Score

Researchers investigating heart CT scans of more than 6,000 people have found that a high coronary artery calcium score may result in a greater risk for cancer, chronic kidney disease, and COPD, besides increasing the risk for heart and vascular disease.

Heart Computed Tomography (CT) scans are used for finding mineral density levels, or calcium scores, in blood vessels feeding into coronary arteries. Coronary calcium scores are a good predictor for the risk of stroke, and coronary heart disease. The study was not intended to look for, measure, or find cause/effect relationships between non-cardiovascular diseases and coronary calcium levels.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD) and other universities, and was published online on March 9, 2016, in the journal Cardiovascular Imaging. The researchers made use of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) that included data from subjects in six different centers. The 6,814 people in the study were 45 to 84 years old, and without any signs of cardiovascular disease when the first heart CT scan and coronary calcium score calculation were made. Over a period of 10 years, through to 2012, the people returned for annual or more follow-up visits.

At the end of the 10-year period 1,238 of the original participants were diagnosed with a variety of non-cardiovascular diseases, such as cancer, kidney disease, pneumonia, blood clot, dementia, hip fracture, and lung disease. The results found that among participants with coronary calcium scores higher than 400, 36.9% were diagnosed with a non-cardiovascular disease. In contrast, only 11% of participants with no coronary artery calcium had such a disease. Chronic kidney disease was found in 395 participants, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in 161 participants.

Michael Blaha, MD, MPH, from the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said, “Plaque in the arteries is the result of cumulative damage and inflammation, and vulnerability to injury and chronic inflammation likely contributes to diseases like cancer, kidney and lung diseases, as well as cardiovascular disease. So it makes sense that the coronary calcium score—a measure of arterial aging—is predictive of non-cardiovascular diseases too. The reason the coronary calcium score may work so well at identifying vulnerability to a variety of chronic diseases is because it’s a direct measurement of the cumulative effect of all risk factors, rather than a consideration of a single risk factor, like obesity, smoking or high blood pressure.”

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Ciccarone Center, John Hopkins School of Medicine