Diagnosis Increases Suicide and Heart Attacks

Cancer diagnosis raises risk of heart attack and suicide

Researchers reveal data that indicates that a terminal cancer diagnosis quite often kills long before the malignant tumors take their toll.

In a recent study involving more than 6 million Swedes, data shows that the risk of suicide or cardiovascular death increases immediately after a cancer diagnosis is given.

Comparing the data of people recently diagnosed with cancer VS those of similar backgrounds who are cancer free, the data shows that within the first weeks of being diagnosed with cancer, some patients were 12.6 times more likely to commit suicide and 5.6 times more likely to die of a heart attack.

“One has to assume that it’s the psychological impact of that news,” said Dr. Ilan Wittstein, a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who was not involved in the study.

“This is not data that suggests cancer, and the physical stress of the cancer is what’s causing people to die,” he said. “These are people getting the news, and within a very short period dying from heart disease — long before treatment ever begins.”

The study also identifies that the highest risk of suicide or cardiovascular death increases in the first few weeks, when the stress from the diagnosis would be at it’s highest levels. Over several months, statistcs show that the stress leveled off and became more managable by the patients.

Highest risk patients appear to be younger patients, and those diagnosed with more serious forms of cancer. For example, over the first 12 weeks, suicide risks for those with lung cancer were 12.3 times higher than those of skin cancer.

“We need to be much more vigilant about watching people, and maybe even treating them prophylactically,” Wittstein said.

There are several treatments available today that were not available a decade ago, giving cancer patients a higher chance of survival than before. Treatments such as Chemotherapy, Radiation, Surgery and DCA Cancer treatments are much more effective than they ever have been, giving recently diagnosed patients more hope for a happy and healthy future.