Deng YZ, Song B. Connection between heart rate variability alterations and cancer in tumor patients. World J Cardiol 2025; 17(3): 102999 [DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i3.102999]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Bing Song, PhD, Professor, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218 Jixi Road, Hefei 230022, Anhui Province, China. 1239739375@qq.com
Research Domain of This Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Mar 26, 2025; 17(3): 102999 Published online Mar 26, 2025. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i3.102999
Connection between heart rate variability alterations and cancer in tumor patients
Yu-Zhu Deng, Bing Song
Yu-Zhu Deng, Bing Song, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, Anhui Province, China
Yu-Zhu Deng, Department of Electrocardiogram, Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Deng YZ design the study, acquired, analyzed and interpreted the data, wrote the manuscript, and designed the table; Song B interpreted the data and reviewed the paper for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. PJ-KY-2024-025).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data may be available upon request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bing Song, PhD, Professor, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218 Jixi Road, Hefei 230022, Anhui Province, China. 1239739375@qq.com
Received: November 5, 2024 Revised: December 18, 2024 Accepted: March 5, 2025 Published online: March 26, 2025 Processing time: 136 Days and 23.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
A significant proportion of cancer patients experience autonomic dysfunction, and cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy can exacerbate impairments in the cardiac autonomic nervous system. This study sought to investigate the characteristics of heart rate variability (HRV) in individuals with cancer.
AIM
To evaluate the relationship between HRV and cancer patients, providing insights and references for cancer treatment.
METHODS
The study included 127 cancer patients with available 24-hour dynamic electrocardiogram data. HRV differences were analyzed using both time domain and frequency domain methods. These findings were then compared to HRV data from reference individuals, sourced from literature that utilized the same HRV computing algorithm.
RESULTS
Our findings revealed that cancer patients generally exhibited abnormal HRV compared to the reference group. HRV was found to be correlated with age and clinical type (P < 0.05), but no significant correlation was observed with tumor site or gender (P > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
This study indicates that cancer patients have significantly abnormal HRV compared to reference individuals, suggesting the presence of a certain level of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in this patient population.
Core Tip: Heart rate variability serves as an indicator of autonomic nervous system function. A reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with system imbalances and potential health concerns. A study involving 127 cancer patients revealed that both the disease and its treatments can lead to a decrease in HRV. Additionally, psychological factors such as stress and anxiety also influence HRV levels. Therefore, monitoring HRV can aid in the assessment of cancer patients’ health status, prognosis, and the formulation of personalized treatment plans.
