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. 2024 Apr 22;10(9):e29929.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29929. eCollection 2024 May 15.

Global association of incidence between atrial fibrillation and the major gastrointestinal cancers: An analysis based on the 2019 Global burden of disease study

Weipeng Huang  1 , Shangbo Xu  1 , Haoyue Zhou  1 , Weibiao Ji  1 , Yangbo Chen  1
Affiliations

Global association of incidence between atrial fibrillation and the major gastrointestinal cancers: An analysis based on the 2019 Global burden of disease study

Weipeng Huang et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are age-related diseases with shared environmental risk factors and underlying biological mechanisms. This study aimed to assess the association between AF and GI cancers on a global scale, analyzing incidence data from 204 countries. This ecological study utilized data from the Global Burden of Disease. Spearman's correlation and logistic regression analyses were employed to assess the association between AF and specific GI cancers, including esophagus cancer (EC), colon and rectum cancer (CRC), liver cancer (LC), pancreatic cancer (PC), and stomach cancer (SC). AF, CRC and PC exhibited increasing crude incidence rates from 2000 to 2019, whereas EC and SC demonstrated decreasing trends specifically in females. From 2000 to 2010, there was a noticeable fall in the incidence rate of LC, which was followed by a minor growth through 2019. The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of AF was positively correlated with CRC and PC, but a negative relationship with AF was revealed for EC. Unexpectedly, no significant relationship was discovered for SC and LC associated with AF. Logistic regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between a country's ASIR of AF and its ASIR of CRC, LC and PC. Conversely, these countries demonstrated a decreased ASIR for EC. Our findings showed a significant correlation between national incidence rates of AF with CRC and PC, worldwide. Countries with higher ASIR of AF had higher ASIR of CRC and PC. Additional research is necessary to confirm the association between GI cancers and AF at the individual level.

Keywords: Association; Atrial fibrillation; Gastrointestinal cancers; Global burden of disease; Incidence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
New cases of AF and gastrointestinal cancers in 2019 are presented. The number of new cases of AF and GI cancers for both genders combined. in 2019 (A). The proportion of new cases of different subgroups of LC, for males (B) and females (C). Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; CRC: colon and rectum cancer; EC: esophagus cancer; LC: liver cancer; PC: pancreatic cancer; SC: stomach cancer; LC_alcohol: LC due to alcohol use; LC_B: LC due to hepatitis B; LC_C: LC due to hepatitis c; LC_NASH: LC due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; LC_ other: LC due to other.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Crude incidence rate of AF and gastrointestinal cancers for both genders in the years 2000, 2010 and 2019. Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; CRC: colon and rectum cancer; EC: esophagus cancer; LC: liver cancer; PC: pancreatic cancer; SC: stomach cancer.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Crude incidence rate of different subgroups of LC for both genders in the years 2000, 2010 and 2019. Abbreviation: LC: liver cancer; LC_alcohol: LC due to alcohol use; LC_B: LC due to hepatitis B; LC_C: LC due to hepatitis c; LC_NASH: LC due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Association between AF and gastrointestinal cancers in 2019. Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; CRC: colon and rectum cancer; EC: esophagus cancer; LC: liver cancer; PC: pancreatic cancer; SC: stomach cancer.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Association between AF and different subgroups of LC in the year 2019. Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; LC: liver cancer; LC_alcohol: LC due to alcohol use; LC_B: LC due to hepatitis B; LC_C: LC due to hepatitis c; LC_NASH: LC due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Association between AF and gastrointestinal cancers at national level by the logistic regression analyses. Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; CRC: colon and rectum cancer; EC: esophagus cancer; LC: liver cancer; PC: pancreatic cancer; SC: stomach cancer; LC_alcohol: LC due to alcohol use; LC_B: LC due to hepatitis B; LC_C: LC due to hepatitis c; LC_NASH: LC due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Comparison of correlation coefficients (r) of AF and gastrointestinal cancers between 2000 and 2019. Abbreviation: AF: atrial fibrillation; CRC: colon and rectum cancer; EC: esophagus cancer; LC: liver cancer; PC: pancreatic cancer; SC: stomach cancer; LC_alcohol: LC due to alcohol use; LC_B: LC due to hepatitis B; LC_C: LC due to hepatitis c; LC_NASH: LC due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
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