Navigating the Vascular Risks of Cancer Therapy: Balancing Cardiac Safety and Tumor Control

ReachMD Announcer: 
You’re listening to Heart Matters on ReachMD. On this episode, we’ll hear from Dr. Jun-ichi Abe, who’s a Professor in the Department of Cardiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He’ll be discussing his presentation from the 2025 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions on balancing cancer treatment with vascular health. Here’s Dr. Abe now.

Dr. Abe:
Cardio-oncology is a multidisciplinary field focused on minimizing cardiovascular complications in patients undergoing cancer therapy. The main goal for us is to allow patients to continue receiving lifesaving cancer treatments without interruption due to cardiovascular side effects.

In terms of our vascular system, this includes both acute and chronic events. Acutely, we often see hypertension and endothelial dysfunction. Chronically, patients may develop atherosclerosis or other forms of vascular injury that can persist long after treatment ends.

So my presentation centered on the complex and often paradoxical relationship between cancer and vascular disease. While it’s well recognized that these conditions are interconnected, the mechanisms remain poorly defined. One major challenge is on the one hand, inflammation contributes to vascular damage and cardiovascular events, but on the other hand, suppressing inflammation too aggressively may impair immune surveillance, potentially facilitating tumor progression and metastasis. This delicate balance makes it very difficult for us to design therapies that are both cardioprotective and oncologically safe.

I would like to highlight the role of cellular senescence—aging—in linking cancer and cardiac disease. We are not aiming to halt aging altogether. That’s not the purpose. Senescence is actually very important and has important roles, including tumor suppression. However, stress-induced acceleration of aging triggered by cancer itself or its treatment can lead to harmful outcomes, and our goal is to modulate this stress-induced senescence without disrupting the normal aging process. Lifestyle intervention, especially physical activity, may help mitigate accelerated aging and improve outcomes in both cancer and cardiac disease.

ReachMD Announcer: 
That was Dr. Jun-ichi Abe talking about his presentation on vascular health and cancer therapies from the 2025 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit Heart Matters on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!