Background

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible association between coronary artery disease (CAD) risk and cervical cancer.

Methods

We used data from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan to address the research topic. The exposure cohort contained 728 patients with cervical cancer. Each cancer patient was randomly frequency-matched with 4 participants by age, index-month, and index-year from the general population who did not have a cancer history before the index date (control group). Cox's proportion hazard regression analyses were conducted to estimate the relationship between cervical cancer and CAD risk.

Results

Among patients with cervical cancer, the overall risk for developing CADs was significantly lower than that of the control group [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.57, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.41–0.79]. Further analyses revealed that the lower risk was observed only in patients with older age (aHR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40–0.82), a shorter follow-up duration (aHR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.31–0.72), or with estrogen supplements (aHR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.22–0.68).

Conclusions

The findings from this population-based study suggest that estrogen supplements are associated with a decreased CAD risk in patients with cervical cancer.