Cancer survival rates are so high that many cancer survivors now have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than of cancer recurrence.
Cardiac diseases in cancer patients--including heart failure, ischemia, thromboembolism, conduction abnormalities, and low blood pressure--do not develop the same way they do in people without cancer. And the presence of the cancer often limits treatment options for the cardiac diseases.
"Preventing cardiovascular disease in patients with cancer and cardiac complications of cancer therapy might have dual benefits, allowing cancer patients to be treated more effectively with potentially life-saving cancer therapies, and preventing long-term cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in these individuals long after cancer therapy is complete," Dr. Aarif Khakoo, of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
His article, "Cancer Therapy Can be Hard on the Heart," explains that although most oncologists realize that chemotherapy, radiation, and even newer targeted cancer therapies can inflict collateral damage on the heart, little is known about the extent of that damage or the mechanisms behind it. He specifically addresses congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy, as well as myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction.
In a previous article, for the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Khakoo explains how a growth factor that is a common target of cancer drugs also plays an important role in the heart's response to stress. Targeting this platelet-derived growth factor receptor(PDGFR)slows the growth of cancer, but it also slows angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels.
Cardiac diseases in cancer patients--including heart failure, ischemia, thromboembolism, conduction abnormalities, and low blood pressure--do not develop the same way they do in people without cancer. And the presence of the cancer often limits treatment options for the cardiac diseases.
"Preventing cardiovascular disease in patients with cancer and cardiac complications of cancer therapy might have dual benefits, allowing cancer patients to be treated more effectively with potentially life-saving cancer therapies, and preventing long-term cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in these individuals long after cancer therapy is complete," Dr. Aarif Khakoo, of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
His article, "Cancer Therapy Can be Hard on the Heart," explains that although most oncologists realize that chemotherapy, radiation, and even newer targeted cancer therapies can inflict collateral damage on the heart, little is known about the extent of that damage or the mechanisms behind it. He specifically addresses congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy, as well as myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction.
In a previous article, for the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Khakoo explains how a growth factor that is a common target of cancer drugs also plays an important role in the heart's response to stress. Targeting this platelet-derived growth factor receptor(PDGFR)slows the growth of cancer, but it also slows angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels.
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