Insights

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Cardiovascular Health after Cancer: Challenges and Strategies

Barbara Natterson, MD

Anti-cancer therapies sometimes have toxic side effects that can affect cardiovascular health.  More recently these issues have come to the forefront and patients and physicians are involving cardiologists in the care of their patients from the point of diagnosis on.  Both patients and physicians can be focused on maintaining cardiac wellness throughout cancer and to recognize and treat cancer therapy-related disorders.  This presentation is geared to empower patients at all phases of the cancer experience to understand the individual risk of cardiovascular conditions related to specific cancer therapies and strategies for assistance.   This presentation helps patients to ask the right questions.  Information is also presented on overall cardiac health to facilitate wellness during the cancer experience and beyond.

Barbara Natterson, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  She has been an attending cardiologist at UCLA Medical Center since 1994 and is also the Director of Imaging for the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and the Director of Cardiovascular Education for the UCLA Division of Cardiology.  She is actively involved in medical education lecturing regularly at the medical student, residency and fellowship levels. She has won numerous teaching awards from her medical students and residents over the past ten years. In addition to her expertise in cardiology she is also trained as a psychiatrist and served as Chief Resident in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Dr. Natterson is currently leading a cardiac imaging program for interventional cardiac procedures. She also combines her training in psychiatry and cardiology to focus on the relationship between psychological states and heart disease. She has lectured and written on topics including the issue of psychological stress and sudden death, nutritional strategies in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, drug therapies for heart cardiovascular health and disease, and women and heart disease.  She also has a special interest in the impact of cancer therapies on cardiovascular function and is working closely with UCLA LiveSTRONG Center for Excellence in Cancer Survivorship.