Breast cancer patients are often at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. A 2020 study has now found suffering stroke or heart attack may fuel faster growth of breast cancer.
Brest Cancer Treatment & Cardiovascular Health
Patients with a certain type of breast cancer (ER+ positive) are put on a drug called estrogen blocker for 5 years. It is a part of breast cancer treatment and the medicine is prescribed after successful surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the best breast cancer treatment hospital in Kolkata . There are certain side-effects of prolonged use of this drug. One of these is related to cardiovascular health. Certain lifestyle changes such as, less exercises, can enhance the risk factor to a significant extent.
However, this effect is not a one-way street. Recently, the researchers have come up with evidences of reciprocal effect i.e. the effect of cardiovascular diseases on breast cancer development. Kathryn Moore, Ph.D., of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, and her colleagues found that the reverse effect is equally true. In their studies, they have showed that the breast cancer patients with a cardiovascular event were at a higher risk of suffering cancer recurrence. These patients are also more vulnerable to death from breast cancer.
More and her team, during their experiments on mice, discovered that a heart attack triggered massive changes in immune system that, in turn, allowed the malignant cells to grow and spread faster. The findings were published in July 13 edition of Nature Medicine in 2020.
The study has fuelled a new line of research focused on how cardiovascular health and breast cancer influence each other. Though Dr. Moore thinks these are alarming facts, still breast cancer survivors can adopt a number of preventive measures to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. These include eating a balanced diet, keeping blood pressure and cholesterol in check and regular exercises.
The oncologists at the best cancer hospital in Kolkata think these measures mitigate the risks of cardiovascular diseases and ensure a better outcome of cancer treatment as well. Researchers are now busy finding if regular exercises can prevent breast cancer recurrence after a cardiovascular event.
Cardiac Events – A Spur to Cancer Growth
To see how a cardiac event affects cancer, the scientists collected data from two studies on women with breast cancer and analysed those.
They found that breast cancer survivors, who suffered heart attack, heart failure, stroke, arrhythmia or coronary artery disease, were at a 59% higher risk of cancer recurrence and 60% higher risk of dying of breast cancer than those who did not suffer any cardiovascular disease. Dr Moore has informed that the team would invest their time in learning if cardiovascular events inflict similar impacts on survivors from other cancers.
In lab, mice were a subject for their experiments. They observed that breast cancer tumour grew and spread faster in the cohort that had undergone an induced heart attack.
Cardiac Events Change Immune Cells
Dr. Moore’s team’s primary focus was on atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) which is one of the prime reasons for heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases. They were curious about why clogged arteries trigger an exaggerated response from immune system. As immune system plays a role in both cancer and clogged arteries, they suspected certain changes in the immune system might be responsible for faster cancer growth after a heart attack.