Mood alteration and heart rate variability in patients with cancer on treatment

Yun-Chen Chang; Wei-Nung Liu; Felicia Lin; Gen-Min Lin

doi:10.4330/wjc.v17.i6.107114

Mood alteration and heart rate variability in patients with cancer on treatment

World J Cardiol. 2025 Jun 26;17(6):107114. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i6.107114.

Authors

Yun-Chen Chang^{1

2}, Wei-Nung Liu³, Felicia Lin⁴, Gen-Min Lin^{3

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing and Graduate Institute of Nursing, China Medical University, Taichung 406, Taiwan.
² Department of Nursing, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan.
³ Department of Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan.
⁴ Community Care, Minnesota Oncology, Minneapolis, MN 55404, United States.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital, Hualien City 970, Taiwan. farmer507@yahoo.com.tw.

Abstract

In this article, Deng and Song showed compelling evidence on the connection between heart rate variability (HRV) alterations and cancer in 127 cancer patients compared with healthy reference individuals, highlighting autonomic nervous system dysfunction as a significant physiological manifestation in cancer patients. We discussed that the reduced HRV may be associated with cancer treatments, e.g., operation, chemotherapy and pain control and psychological response such as depression and anxiety related to the affected cancer. A management such as medicine to mood disturbances related to cancer has been shown a benefit to improve HRV in cancer patients.

Keywords: Cancer; Chemotherapy; Heart; Heart rate variability; Mental stress.

Publication types

Editorial