Emerging evidence supports that cancer incidence is increased in patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease and heart failure (HF), and patients with HF frequently die from cancer. Recently, data have been generated showing that circulating factors in relation to HF promote tumour growth and development in murine models, providing proof that a causal relationship exists between both diseases. Several common pathophysiological mechanisms linking HF to cancer exist, and include inflammation, neuro-hormonal activation, oxidative stress and a dysfunctional immune system. These shared mechanisms, in combination with risk factors, in concert may explain why patients with HF are prone to develop cancer. Investigating the new insights linking HF with cancer is rapidly becoming an exciting new field of research, and we herein review the most recent data. Besides insights in mechanisms, we call for clinical awareness, that is essential to optimize treatment strategies of patients having developed cancer with a history of HF. Finally, ongoing and future trials should strive for comprehensive phenotyping of both CV and cancer end points, to allow optimal usefulness of data, and to better describe and understand common characteristics of these two lethal diseases.

中文翻译：

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癌症和心脏病：协会和关系。

越来越多的证据支持患有心血管（CV）和心力衰竭（HF）的患者的癌症发病率增加，并且患有HF的患者经常死于癌症。最近，已经产生的数据表明，与HF相关的循环因子在鼠模型中促进了肿瘤的生长和发育，提供了两种疾病之间存在因果关系的证据。存在几种将HF与癌症联系起来的常见病理生理机制，包括炎症，神经激素激活，氧化应激和免疫系统功能异常。这些共同的机制与危险因素相结合，可以解释为什么HF患者容易患癌症。研究将HF与癌症联系起来的新见解正迅速成为令人​​兴奋的新研究领域，在此我们回顾最新数据。除了对机制的见识之外，我们还呼吁临床认识，这对于优化患有HF史的癌症患者的治疗策略至关重要。最后，正在进行的和将来的试验应努力实现CV和癌症终点的综合表型分析，以实现数据的最佳利用，并更好地描述和理解这两种致死性疾病的共同特征。