Re-Evaluating the Safety of Drug-Eluting Stents in Cancer Patients

Evidence increasingly shows that cancer and coronary artery disease are interlinked through common risk factors, co-occurrence in an aging population, and through the deleterious effects of cancer treatment on cardiovascular health. Many of the clinical risk factors for cancer, such as diabetes, smoking, and chronic inflammatory state, are also risk factors for coronary artery disease and for stent restenosis and thrombosis. The current generations of drug-eluting stents have been proven to reduce the risk of restenosis and stent thrombosis as compared with bare-metal stents. However, because of the perceived need for shorter course of dual antiplatelet treatment, operators often prefer bare-metal stents in patients with cancer out of concern for increased bleeding risk and expectant need for cancer-directed surgery. The current evidence with newer-generation stent technology demonstrates the feasibility of shorter duration of dual antiplatelet treatment, without increasing the risk of stent thrombosis and bleeding, while maintaining improved efficacy compared with bare-metal stents. Cardiovascular disease in patients with cancer is complex, and treatment needs to be individualized. Refraining from the use of drug-eluting stents altogether in this rapidly expanding cohort may lead to higher major adverse cardiovascular events, which can thwart the effectiveness of advances in both cancer and cardiovascular therapeutics. Considering the developing evidence thus far, perhaps it is time to rethink the choice of stent in patients with cancer who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention. (C) 2017 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation.