Newborns with congenital heart disease may face elevated cancer risk; their mothers too
Key takeaways:
- Newborns with congenital heart disease, especially isolated valve or vessel lesions, may be at increased risk for cancer.
- Mother of newborns with congenital heart disease may also be at increased cancer risk.
Newborns with congenital heart disease and their mothers may both face elevated risk for cancer compared with their counterparts not affected by congenital heart disease, according to study findings in Circulation.
Researchers in South Korea conducted a nationwide retrospective study using the Korean National Health Insurance Service database to better understand risk for cancer in newborns with congenital heart disease as well as their mothers.
“Our research highlights the importance of maternal factors and genetic traits and understanding how they may be connected,” June Huh, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology in the department of pediatrics at the Heart Vascular Stroke Institute, Samsung Medical Center at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, said in a press release.
Their analysis included more than 3.5 million first live births from 2005 to 2019. Mothers with a history of cancer at baseline were excluded from the analysis.
Congenital heart diseases included isolated shunt lesions, isolated valve or vessel lesions, complex congenital heart disease and others. Cancer incidence was defined as the same ICD-10 codes for cancer occurring more than three times in 1 year or an inpatient hospitalization with a C code, for both newborns and mothers.
Overall, 72,205 newborns had congenital heart disease, and during a median follow-up of 10.32 years, the incidence of cancer was greater in newborns with congenital heart disease compared with those without congenital heart disease (HR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.46-1.88; P < .001).
Newborns with isolated valve or vessel lesions experienced the greatest risk for cancer, with a more than twofold higher incidence of cancer compared with those without congenital heart disease (HR = 2.29; 95% CI, 1.48-3.56; P < .001), followed by those with complex congenital heart disease (HR = 2.01; 95% CI, 1.2-3.36; P = .008) and isolated shunt lesions (HR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.18-1.78; P < .001). Use of inverse probability treatment weighting did not change the results.
Ovarian cancer and liver cancer were the cancer subtypes most strongly associated with congenital heart disease.
“The genetic variants inherited from the mother may provide the necessary environment for cancer to develop in congenital heart defect patients, highlighting a possible shared genetic pathway underlying both conditions,” Huh said in the release.
In other findings, mothers who gave birth to newborns with congenital heart disease also experienced increased risk for cancer, across all congenital heart disease subgroups (HR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.11-1.23; P < .001), according to the study.
“This nationwide study demonstrates a notable association between congenital heart disease in newborns and an elevated risk of cancer in both these newborns and their mothers,” the researchers wrote. “This insight into the multifaceted etiology of cancer in individuals with congenital heart disease calls for a multidisciplinary approach to care.”
Reference:
- Newborns with heart defects may face a higher risk of developing childhood cancer. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/newborns-with-heart-defects-may-face-a-higher-risk-of-developing-childhood-cancer. Published March 17, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2025.
Collapse
Read more about