Published: 17:04 BST, 21 August 2026 | Updated: 21:29 BST, 21 August 2026
America's biggest killer may be fueling cancer deaths, a study suggests.
Suffered by nearly half of American adults, more than 120 million people, heart disease represents an umbrella of cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke.
It takes nearly 1 million lives every year, with a growing number of patients dying as young as their 30s, 40s and 50s.
Now, researchers in Scotland have discovered an even more terrifying trend: People suffering from heart disease may be at a greater risk of developing and dying from cancer.
The team combed through health data from more than 20,000 people over the course of two decades, analyzing rates of heart disease and cancer, as well as deaths from either condition.
They found men with heart disease were 70 percent more likely to develop cancer than those without the condition. For women, having heart disease raised the likelihood of cancer by about 60 percent.
Additionally, men with heart disease were 50 percent more likely than women to die from cancer, which may be due to heart disease being more prevalent in men and this group having more cancer-promoting risk factors like obesity and smoking.
The team also delved into specific forms of cancer, noting that lung, colon and esophageal cancers were the most common forms to appear in the study, particularly in men.
People with heart disease may be more likely to develop and die from several forms of cancer, a study suggests
'We found that men had a higher incidence of both getting cancer in the first place and sadly, also in dying from it, and this was particularly true among people with cardiovascular disease,' Dr Rosa Thuemmler, study author and diagnostic radiology researcher at the University of Aberdeen, said.
'Although the pattern was the same across all subtypes of cancer, this was most pronounced in lung and esophageal cancers.'
Lung, colon and esophageal cancers share several of the same risk factors as heart disease, such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and alcohol use, which may have contributed to these cancers appearing most frequently.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, followed 22,534 patients who were cancer-free at the start for an average of 26 years. About 57 percent were women, and the average age was 59.
There were 10,889 participants who either already had heart disease or developed it during the follow-up period.