WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with prostate cancer, routine referral to a cardiovascular specialist leads to improved outcomes, according to a study published online Aug. 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, held from Aug. 28 to 31 in Munich.
Darryl P. Leong, Ph.D., from McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues examined whether routine referral of patients with prostate cancer to a cardiovascular specialist to implement a systematic risk factor strategy is more likely to reduce adverse cardiovascular outcomes and improve risk factor control than usual care. The randomized clinical trial included 2,487 patients with prostate cancer from 55 sites in eight countries who were randomly assigned to receive usual care alone or usual care plus routine referral to an internist or cardiologist.
The researchers found that the win ratio in favor of the intervention was 1.60 during median follow-up of 5.8 years, mostly due to lower cholesterol in the intervention group (mean difference, 12.mg/dL) as a result of greater protocol-mandated statin use. Mean close-out systolic blood pressure values were 131.1 and 132.9 mm Hg in the intervention and control groups, respectively. There was no between-group difference in time to cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure.
"Looking closely at the data, there is a signal suggesting a reduction in heart attacks, which is consistent with the cholesterol-lowering effect we observed," Leong said in a statement. "That finding needs to be confirmed through further research."
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
