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New research from UHN's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) shows statins, commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, may also protect the heart from damaging side-effects of early breast cancer treatment.
Published Jan. 6, 2021 in the
Journal of the American Heart Association, an observational study found women already taking statins and treated with either anthracyclines or trastuzumab were half as likely to be hospitalized or visit an Emergency Department for heart failure within five years after chemotherapy.
"Our job is to protect the heart and ensure it has the greatest fighting chance to get through chemotherapy," says Dr. Husam Abdel-Qadir, lead author of the paper and a cardiologist at the PMCC and Women's College Hospital. He notes prior observational studies have reported measures of heart strength in statin-treated women after chemotherapy, but only focused on a single centre.