Risk of coronary heart disease among cancer survivors with different prediagnosis body mass index

Association between body mass index (BMI) and coronary heart disease (CHD) in cancer survivors is not clearly established. This study analyzed the prediagnosis BMI-CHD association by examining 13,500 cancer survivors identified from the National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2009 including the patients who were free of cardiovascular disease at enrollment. The Cox proportional hazards model (adjusted for socioeconomic, health behavior, health status, and medical characteristics) was used for calculating hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for CHD in each prediagnosis BMI category among cancer survivors. Compared to cancer survivors with a prediagnosis BMI between 18.5 and 22.9 kg/m(2), those with a prediagnosis BMI of 23.0–24.9 kg/m(2) and ≥ 25.0 kg/m(2) had significantly higher CHD risk (HR = 1.51; 95% CI: 1.13–2.01 and HR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.04–1.84, respectively). Cancer survivors with a low prediagnosis BMI (< 18.5 kg/m(2)) also had significantly higher CHD risk (HR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.20–3.24) compared to those with a BMI of 18.5–22.9 kg/m(2). Similar associations were found after stratifying analyses based on first cancer site and sociodemographic and medical characteristic subgroups. Our study suggests that prediagnosis underweight among patients with cancer is a predictor of CHD risk.