ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — A new study suggests an increased risk of heart disease in breast cancer survivors.
According to this study, aggressive breast cancer treatments may cause heart problems in women -- sometimes years after treatment. In about 10% of breast cancer patients, chemotherapy and radiation can damage the heart. It can happen during treatment or years down the road according to CBS News medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula, who is a cardiologist at Northwell Health.
Dr. Narula says breast cancer treatment puts the heart at risk
Breast cancer treatment puts the heart at risk in several ways. Chemotherapy can damage the heart muscle that pumps blood, leading to heart failure. Radiation can disrupt normal heart rhythm, and damage both the lining around the heart and the heart valves. The biggest risk from radiation is the development of early and accelerated coronary artery disease, which raises the risk of heart attack.
"Yes, some breast cancer treatments can affect the heart," said Dr. Stephanie Schnepp, a breast surgeon with the SSM Health Medical Group. "But the point in what they are trying to say is the people will have more risk from cardiovascular disease. And that's just because more people have cardiovascular disease in general and certainly, if women are living 20, 30 or 40 years after their breast cancer diagnosis, now there's more time for heart disease to develop."
Dr. Schnepp says the numbers bear that out.
"Currently in the United States, about three million women are living with breast cancer," said Dr. Schnepp. "But about 50 million women have cardiovascular disease. So across women in general -- with or without cancer -- cardiovascular disease is very prevalent and something that very much needs to be addressed. And really, a lot of those risk factors can be modified by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, keeping your blood sugar low, keeping your blood pressure and cholesterol under control, checking all those routine things that doctors recommend checking and maintaining good health in general, that's going to be more life-saving in these kinds of cases."
Dr. Schnepp says doctors are well aware of this increased cardiac risk.
"Routinely, even if no one has ever had any history of health problems, we check the heart before, during and after treatment to monitor and make sure -- first of all that they're entering treatment with a healthy heart -- and as they go through it, there's no impact on it," Dr. Schnepp tells KMOX. "If there is any change in heart function -- as seen in the tests they conduct such as an echo-cardiogram or an ultrasound of the heart -- then they may be able to adjust the treatment or not use certain of those agents that would affect the heart and do other things to make sure the heart remains as healthy as possible during and after treatment." But Dr. Schnepp says there'a bigger bottom line message here.
"We don't want anybody to not get life-saving breast cancer treatment because they are concerned about the risks for the heart," said Dr. Schnepp. "Certainly if you have some of these cancers, they have to be treated or the outcome will not be as good. But if you can monitor the heart at the same time, that would be the optimal situation to make sure we are not getting into any kind of trouble and we can adjust things as needed."
Dr. Narula says after treatment, cancer patients should ask doctors to give them a detailed record of their chemo and radiation doses to discuss with their primary care doctor or cardiologist. They should also speak to them about how to recognize symptoms of heart disease and take preventive measures to lower their risk.
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