Objective  To understand the treatment-related cardiovascular complications in patients with lymphoma and their effects on prognosis.

  Methods  The data of patients with lymphoma admitted from January 1995 to December 2017 in the Department of Lymphoma, Peking University Cancer Hospital, were analyzed and followed up. Cardiovascular complications during treatment and follow-up were recorded, and survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

  Results  Among 1, 173 cases of lymphoma, 742 (63.3%) involved male patients. The median age was 56 (8-92) years. There were 77 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma (6.6%), 1, 095 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (93.4%), and 1 case of uncertain pathological classification. There were 137 cases (11.7%) involving cardiovascular complications related to treatment:54 cases of arrhythmia; 44 cases of thromboembolic diseases; 15 cases of cardiac insufficiency/heart failure; 9 cases of coronary heart disease; 7 cases of peripheral vascular diseases and stroke; 2 cases of hypertension; 1 case of pulmonary hypertension; and 5 cases of pericardial diseases and others. There was no significant difference in the incidence of cardiovascular complications between patients with Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (9.1% vs. 11.9%, P=0.463). There were 104 patients (8.9%) who changed their anti-tumor treatment plans due to cardiovascular complications. There was no significant difference in median survival between patients with and without cardiovascular complications (25.0 months vs. 20.0 months, P=0.135).

  Conclusions  Cardiovascular complications are commonly associated with lymphoma treatment. Of these, arrhythmias and thromboembolic diseases are the main subgroups. Cardiovascular complications exert no significant adverse effects on the prognosis of patients with lymphoma.