Michael Simon, M.D., MPH, medical oncologist, co-leader of the Breast Cancer Multidisciplinary Team, and member of the Molecular Therapeutics and the Populations Studies and Disparities Research Programs at Karmanos Cancer Institute, recently co-authored a review with colleagues across the country. “A review of research on the intersection between breast cancer and cardiovascular research in Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)” was published in Frontiers in Oncology in March. The researchers focused on “cardio-oncology,” where cancer and cardiovascular disease intersect.
“Heart disease is the number one killer in our breast cancer population,” said Dr. Simon. “The studies emphasize the importance of taking care of all aspects of the medical care of our breast cancer patients, including diabetes, hypertension, smoking, among others, which are all essentially risk factors for heart disease.”
Consolidating this research into one article can open doors for other research questions and raise awareness of the work done on this topic.
“Many risk factors for heart disease not only lead to increased risks of breast cancer but can also lead to an increased risk of death and poorer outcomes in our breast cancer survivors,” said Dr. Simon. “It is relevant to consolidate the research in this area of cardio-oncology – at least for breast cancer.”
Dr. Simon’s co-authors include Sreejata Raychaudhuri, M.D., Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, Ph.D., MPH, Dana-Faber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School; Richard K. Cheng, M.D., MS, University of Washington; Ana Barac, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute; Kerryn W. Reding, Ph.D., MPH, RN, University of Washington; Alexi Vasbinder, Ph.D., RN, University of Michigan; Katherine L. Cook, Ph.D., Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem; Vidhya Nair, Ascension Providence Hospital, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine; and Pinkal Desai, M.D., MPH, Weill Cornell Medical College.
Read the article here.