Effects of radical cystectomy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy on the risk of long-term heart-specific death in bladder cancer patients

BACKGROUND: At present, the low risk of bladder cancer (BCa)-specific death has allowed for investigation into treatment-related cardiotoxicity. To aid clinicians in selecting appropriate cardiovascular disease screening strategies and interventions, this study explored the heart-specific mortality and prognostic factors of patients with BCa after radical cystectomy (RC), radiotherapy (RT), or chemotherapy (CT), and compared their long-term heart-specific mortality with that of the general male population. METHODS: We identified three different treatments for BCa patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database: RC, RT, and CT. Patients were included from 2000 to 2012 and followed through 2015. A cumulative mortality curve and competitive risk regression model were applied to evaluate the prognostic factors of heart-specific mortality, and standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated. RESULTS: Of 39,500 men, 30.3%, 18.8%, and 50.9% received RC, RT, and CT, respectively. For patients with a survival period of less than 50 months, tumor-specific death exhibited a rapidly increasing trend, which subsequently flatlined. However, the rates heart-specific mortality and other causes exhibited a tendency to increase stably. The heart-specific and all-cause mortality rates of patients in any age group treated with the three abovementioned strategies were higher than those of the general population. The heart-specific mortality of patients with carcinoma in situ treated with RC and CT exceeded their all-cause mortality, while that of other tumor stages did not. The risks of heart-specific [sub-distribution hazard ratio (SHR) =1.38; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22–1.57] and tumor-specific (SHR =1.68; 95% CI: 1.60–1.77) deaths in patients who received RT were higher than those of patients who underwent CT. CONCLUSIONS: The risks of heart-specific and tumor-specific deaths in patients who received RT were higher than those of the RC and CT groups, especially in patients over 65 years of age who received RT.