Atrial fibrillation and cancer; understanding the mysterious relationship through a systematic review.

Based on our review, there appears to be an increase in risk of subsequent diagnosis of cancer in patients with AF, likely owing to the shared risk factors between the two conditions. While the results of this study raise interesting questions for future search, they are not currently strong enough to justify initiating cancer screening for an occult cancer in a patient with AF. Regardless, measures to target modification of these shared risk factors remains an important consideration.