A brief cardiovascular (CV) risk assessment, delivered as part of a targeted community-based lung cancer screening programme, could be effective in identifying individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease who might benefit from primary prevention. That is the finding of new research published in the journal Lung Cancer.
The study assessed 10-year CV risk using QRISK2 score in participants of the Manchester Lung Screening Pilot without cardiovascular disease (CVD) and compared these to age- and sex-matched control participants from the Health Survey for England.
In 714 (77.6%) participants without established CVD, the median QRISK2 score was 21.1% (interquartile range, 14.9-29.6) and this was positively correlated with lung cancer risk i.e. PLCOM2012 score (r=0.26; P<.001). Just above 93% were classified as high risk based on a QRISK2 score of at least 10%. Overall, 33.7% of all participants were at high risk for CVD but were not receiving primary prevention with statin therapy as recommended by NICE.
Compared to age- and sex-matched control participants, screening participants had a 2-fold greater 10-year CVD risk (21.1% vs 10.3%; P<.001) and were 10-times more likely to be classified high risk (OR, 10.2; 95% CI, 7.3-14.0), although the authors point out that this could be partly because of screening selection criteria.
The authors concluded that opportunistic CVD risk assessment within a targeted lung cancer screening programme is feasible and is likely to identify a very large number of individuals suitable for primary prevention.
