Tumor development requires angiogenesis, and antiangiogenesis has been introduced in the treatment of cancer patients; however, how the cardiovascular phenotype correlates with cancer risk remains ill-defined. Here, we hypothesized that vasoactive peptides previously implicated in angiogenesis regulation predict long-term cancer risk.
We measured midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), and C-terminal preprovasopressin (copeptin) in fasting plasma from participants of the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study that were free from cancer prior to the baseline exam in 1991 to 1994 (1,768 males and 2,293 females). We used Cox proportional hazards models to determine the time to first cancer event in relation to baseline levels of vasoactive peptides during a median follow-up of 15 years.
First cancer events occurred in 366 males and in 368 females. In males, one SD increase of MR-proANP, copeptin, and MR-proADM was independently related to incident cancer [HR (95% CI)] by 0.85 (0.74-0.96), P = 0.012; 1.17 (1.04-1.32), P = 0.009; and 1.12 (0.99-1.26), P = 0.065, respectively, and a summed biomarker score identified an almost 2-fold difference in cancer risk between the top and bottom quartile (P