Peripheral Arterial Disease is Associated With Higher Rates of Hospital Encounters and Mortality in Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study Conducted at a Tertiary Cancer Center

Cancer and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have overlapping risk factors and common genetic predispositions. The concomitant effects of PAD and cancer on patients have not been well studied. The objective of this retrospective study is to evaluate outcomes of cancer patients with PAD. A query was made into Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's database to assess outcome of patients with and without the diagnosis of PAD (using ICD 9 and 10 codes). Inclusion criteria were patients diagnosed with lung, colon, prostate, bladder, or breast cancer between January 1, 2013 and December 12, 2018. A total of 77,014 patients were included in this cohort. 1,426 patients (1.8%, 95% CI 1.8-1.9) carried a diagnosis of PAD. PAD diagnosis was most prevalent in bladder cancer (4.7%, 95% CI 4.1-5.2) and lung cancer patients (4.6%, 95% CI 4.2-4.9). In regression models adjusted for cancer diagnosis, age at cancer diagnosis, stage, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, smoking, and BMI > 30, patients with PAD had significantly higher odds of UCC admissions (OR 1.50, 95%CI 1.32-1.70, P < 0.001), inpatient admissions (OR 1.32, 95%CI 1.16-1.50, P < 0.001), and ICU admissions (OR 1.64, 95%CI 1.31-2.03, P < 0.001). After adjusting for all these same factors, patients with PAD had a 13% higher risk of dying relative to patients without PAD (HR 1.13, 95% CI 1.04-1.22, P = 0.003). Cancer patients with PAD had higher risks of ICU stays, UCC visits, inpatient admissions, and mortality compared to cancer patients without PAD even when adjusting for CAD, stroke, other comorbidities, cancer diagnosis, and cancer stage.