Key result
Untreated breast cancer shows no association with altered resting myocardial blood flow vs healthy controls.
Why the study?
The heart critically depends on continuous blood supply, but whether cancer itself affects myocardial blood flow was unknown.
Does breast cancer itself affect myocardial blood flow in newly diagnosed, untreated patients?
Cross-Sectional (n=50)
No
Does breast cancer itself affect myocardial blood flow in newly diagnosed, untreated patients?
Untreated breast cancer does not appear to impair resting myocardial blood flow or capillary density, suggesting that cardiovascular dysfunction in these patients is primarily related to cancer therapies rather than the disease itself.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports attributing resting perfusion changes to therapies, not cancer itself; leaves open exercise MBF responses by tumor grade.
Summary The heart depends critically on continuous blood supply, but it is unknown whether cancer itself affects myocardial blood flow (MBF). This study investigated MBF in cancer patients and cardiac morphology in a cancer mice model. MBF was quantified with [¹⁵O]H₂O positron emission tomography at rest in recently diagnosed breast cancer patients and age-matched female controls, and additionally during 10-min exercise in the cancer patients. Cardiac morphological changes were analyzed with a breast cancer mouse model and control mice without tumors. Resting MBF was similar in cancer patients and controls. MBF increased significantly during exercise in cancer patients, and exercising MBF correlated positively with cancer grade. In the mouse model, cancer did not affect heart weight, cardiomyocyte size, myocardial capillary density, or capillary-to-myocyte size ratio. Thus, resting MBF in humans or myocardial capillarity in mice appears not to be affected by breast cancer. The exercise-induced MBF increase in cancer patients with higher histologic grade requires further investigations.
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Koivula et al. (2024) conducted a cross-sectional in Newly diagnosed breast cancer (n=50). Breast cancer vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Resting myocardial blood flow (p=0.84). Resting myocardial blood flow was similar between untreated breast cancer patients and healthy controls, indicating that untreated cancer does not impact resting myocardial perfusion.
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