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# Bad cancer news: Cancer diagnosis raises heart attack, suicide risk
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/bad_cancer_news_0407120106/
- Published: 2012-04-07T14:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:25:55.000Z
- Description: A Karolinska study following more than six million Swedes found suicide risk twelve times higher in the week after a cancer diagnosis and cardiovascular death six times higher, with the biggest increases in poor-prognosis cancers such as lung and pancreatic.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

By david Liu PHD

Saturday April 7, 2012 ([foodconsumer.org](http://www.foodconsumer.org/)) -- X-ray based diagnostics and treatments increase cancer risk, which is well known. But a new Swedish study released on Thursday found another risk associated this time with cancer diagnosis, which does not come from diagnostic tools.

The study led by Karolinska Institute scientists found people diagnosed with cancer were more likely to commit suicide or suffer fatal heart attack.

“Previous studies have shown that cancer patients are at higher risk of suicide and cardiovascular disease, which up until now has mainly been ascribed to the emotional strain of living with the potentially fatal disease and the often physically demanding cancer treatment,” the Karolinska Institute stated in a press release.

“Newly published data on patients with prostate cancer suggest, however, that being given the diagnosis may, in itself, be associated with a marked increase in the stress-related disease and death.”

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed more than six million people in Sweden from 2001 to 2006 with more than 500,000 diagnosed with cancer during the period.

“Only a small proportion of patients committed suicide immediately after being diagnosed with cancer. However, the suicide risk during the first week following the diagnosis was twelve times higher than in people without cancer,” the Karolinska Institute stated.

“Similarly, the risk of cardiovascular death was six times higher during the first week and three times higher during the first month after a cancer diagnosis, compared to people without cancer.”

The risk for committing suicide and suffering fatal heart attack was greatest in malignant cancers with a poor prognosis, such as lung and pancreatic cancers, and understandably much smaller in cases of skin cancer, the world-famous research organization added.

The key part of the study is that the risk decreased in magnitude over time, which suggests that "the risk increase may be traced to the diagnosis itself rather than the emotional or physical suffering related to progression of the cancer or its treatment," according to the press release.