Concomitant Discontinuation of Cardiovascular Therapy and Adjuvant Hormone Therapy Among Patients With Breast Cancer

Abstract

ImportanceA large proportion of patients with breast cancer concomitantly use adjuvant hormone therapy and cardiovascular therapy.ObjectiveTo examine the relative risk of discontinuing cardiovascular therapy during the periods before and after discontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis population-based cohort study included all women aged 40 to 74 years in Stockholm, Sweden, who were diagnosed with breast cancer and concomitantly using adjuvant hormone therapy and cardiovascular therapy. Patients were enrolled from July 1, 2005, to August 31, 2020, with a median follow-up of 7.2 years. Data were analyzed from November 3, 2021, to May 12, 2022.ExposureDiscontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe main outcome was discontinuation of cardiovascular therapy (cardiovascular drugs, statins, or aspirin) within 1 year before and after discontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy. Incidence rate ratios with 95% CIs were estimated using Poisson regression. Furthermore, hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs for cause-specific mortality were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression models, comparing those who discontinued and continued adjuvant hormone therapy.ResultsA total of 5493 patients with breast cancer who concomitantly used cardiovascular therapy were identified; 1811 who discontinued adjuvant hormone therapy were individually matched to 1 patient each who continued therapy by year of breast cancer diagnosis, age at diagnosis, and use of the same cardiovascular therapy. Most patients (4070 [74.1%]) were aged 60 years or older at diagnosis. At the time when patients discontinued adjuvant hormone therapy, 248 (12.2%) concomitantly discontinued their cardiovascular therapy. During follow-up, a higher discontinuation rate of cardiovascular therapy was also observed among those who discontinued adjuvant hormone therapy. Consistently, adjuvant hormone therapy discontinuation was associated with an increased risk of death not only due to breast cancer (HR, 1.43; 95 CI%, 1.01-2.01) but also cardiovascular disease (HR, 1.79; 95 CI%, 1.15-2.81). Stratifying the analyses on baseline type of adjuvant hormone therapy yielded consistent results.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this cohort study of data from population-based registers in Sweden, patients who discontinued adjuvant hormone therapy were also more likely to discontinue cardiovascular therapy, especially at the time when they discontinued adjuvant hormone therapy. These findings suggest that clinicians should shift from single- to multiple-disease focus to prevent discontinuation of therapies for other diseases among patients with breast cancer.