Jean-Pierre Usdin
American Hospital of Paris, France
Title: Cardio-oncology, a medical speciality for these linked pathologies
Biography
Biography: Jean-Pierre Usdin
Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the leading causes of death from non-communicable diseases in the world. These two top killers share not only this characteristic but have common specificities. Risk factors are some modifiable: Tobacco, social custom sedentarity, environment, others are not: Age, heredity. Cardiovascular health cancer therapies occupy an important place. As cancer therapies are more and more active, affected people are cured or living longer, so heart disease is an emerging problem in this population. For this purpose a sub speciality: Cardio-oncology was created. Cardio oncology permits specialists of cardiology and oncology not only to share the immediate but the long term of illnesses. As example, in the past, we all know the effects of chemotherapy (anthracyclines) on myocardial function, the occurrence of constrictive pericarditis many years after chest radiotherapy. But new cancer treatments like immunotherapy, hormonotherapy, cell specific inhibitor antibodies, are no safer and interfere with heart and vascular function. According to my knowledge, there is no cardiologist regularly invited in multidisciplinary staff meetings, debating pros and cons of patient’s treatments. On the other side, cardiac therapies are sometimes pointed out to provoke (statin) or protect from (aspirin) cancer when prescribed on a long term basis. Cardio oncology speciality will permit in the very next future to unify in one specialist the treatment of these frequently associated pathologies.
