NT-proBNP plasma levels predict a future diagnosis of cancer
We performed a univariate Cox analysis for all the variables displayed in table 1. Age [HR 1.034 CI (1.003-1.065); p=0.032], NT-proBNP (HR 1.020 [1.004-1.035] per 100 units of increment; p=0.012), hsTnI plasma levels (HR 1.052 [1.005-1.102] per 0.1 unit; p=0.029), and the previous existence of atrial fibrillation [HR 3.144 CI (1.203-8.216); p=0.019] were independent predictors of a future diagnosis of cancer in the first three years (Supplemental Table S1). No variable was shown to predict a cancer diagnosis beyond three years of follow-up.
Variables that showed a p value <0.20 at the univariate analysis were included in the multivariate Cox regression. NT-proBNP was a strong, independent predictor of developing cancer in the first three years of follow-up, along with the existence of previous atrial fibrillation and the absence of heart failure (Table 3). There were no independent predictors of developing cancers beyond three years of follow-up.
Forty patients (4.4%) developed heart failure during follow-up in the group A, 0 (0.0%) in group B, and 2 (6.9%) in group C (p=0.216).