Causes of Death in Patients with Cancer: A Scoping Review

作者：C. A. Lee, Yifeng Gao, Volker Arndt · 发表于：Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1158/1055-9965.epi-25-1470 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity and mitigation、Neutropenia and Cancer Infections、Economic and Financial Impacts of Cancer

With improved survival, noncancer causes of death have become increasingly relevant in cancer care. Excess noncancer mortality may reflect treatment-related toxicity, comorbidities, shared risk factors, and psychologic distress. This scoping review aimed to map the population-based evidence on the causes of death in patients with cancer and identify research gaps. PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Scopus were searched until April 2025. A total of 203 population-based studies using standardized mortality ratios (SMR) to compare cause-specific mortality among patients with cancer with that of the general population were included. Noncancer mortality was consistently elevated among patients with cancer [median SMR 1.60; interquartile range (IQR) 1.24-2.51], especially during the first year after diagnosis (3.42; 1.45-6.92), and remained higher over 10 years after diagnosis (1.51; 1.08-5.49). Younger patients and those with advanced-stage cancers demonstrated higher noncancer mortality. Among specific causes, cardiovascular disease (1.37; 1.09-2.34), suicide (1.73; 1.32-2.77), stroke (1.36; 0.98-2.17), infectious diseases in general (2.20; 1.35-4.16), septicemia (2.84; 1.64-5.47), and pneumonia/influenza (1.57; 1.08-2.69) were consistently elevated. Patients with cancer have demonstrated substantial noncancer mortality. These findings identify priority areas for targeted prevention and further investigation into cause-specific mortality patterns beyond cancer-...