Coronary artery calcification scoring system based on the coronary artery calcium data and reporting system (CAC-DRS) predicts major adverse cardiovascular events or all-cause death in patients with potentially curable lung cancer without a history of cardiovascular disease

The coronary artery calcium data and reporting system (CAC-DRS) is a novel reporting system based on CAC severity. Lung cancer patients have a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), for which CAC severity may provide additional prognostic information. Using non-gated, non-contrast computed tomography (CT), we evaluated the CAC-DRS for predicting CVD and all-cause death in patients with potentially curable resected lung cancer. We retrospectively studied 309 consecutive patients without a history of CVD (mean age 67.4 ± 8.2 years, 61% male) who underwent curative surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer between May 2012 and March 2019 at the Japanese Red Cross Okayama Hospital. Time to incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) (non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke and cardiovascular death) and all-cause death was analyzed using Fine and Gray and Cox regression models. The CAC-DRS score was assessed using standard chest CT without electrocardiogram gating. During 52-months’ median follow-up, 43 patients (13.4%) developed incident MACEs or died from any cause; the pathological cancer stages were Ia (n = 20), Ib (n = 8), IIa (n = 2), IIb (n = 2) and IIIa (n = 11). Patients had a graded increase in incidence of MACEs or all-cause death with increasing categories of CAC-DRS. The CAC-DRS score was significantly associated with incident MACEs or all-cause death after adjusting for confounding factors (hazard ratio 1.18; 95% confidence interval 1.10–1.25, p < 0.01). In conclusion, the CAC-DRS score on non-gated standard CT can predict incident MACEs and/or all-cause death in patients with potentially curable resected lung cancer. Lung cancer survivors with a greater CAC-DRS category may need more active management of cardiovascular risk factors.