With more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, researcher, and educator in cardiovascular diseases, I joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering as Chief of the Cardiology Service in 2003. Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Cardiology program is one of the world’s leading programs devoted exclusively to the management of cardiovascular diseases in cancer patients. The many facets of this program share a common goal: to facilitate the delivery of optimal cancer therapy in patients who are at risk for or who have existing heart disease. Careful communication with other members of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering treatment team — including oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, radiation therapists, and medical subspecialists — makes this possible. On a practical level, this effort reduces the risk of cancer patients developing heart disease, and allows more patients who have both cancer and heart disease to safely receive the optimal therapy for their cancer.
While it is unusual for even the largest medical centers to have a single cardiologist devoted to the management of cardiovascular diseases in cancer patients, the Cardiology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering has nine full-time, board-certified cardiologists, 15 nurses/nurse practitioners/physician assistants, and a larger team of cardiovascular technologists in its cardiovascular programs.
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Comprehensive outpatient and inpatient services are provided, including a monitored inpatient cardiac care unit which is a unique program for the management of the highest-risk cardiac patients with cancer. The cardiology team conducts ongoing clinical and research programs in cardiac safety and toxicity of cancer drugs, safety of cancer surgery in patients with heart disease, amyloid heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, and arrhythmia, coronary disease, valve disease, hypertension, and heart failure in patients with cancer. We also have a large clinical and research survivorship program to better understand and manage the late cardiovascular effects of cancer and its therapies.
We serve as cardiac consultants to the National Cancer Institute and other organizations that are exploring the future of cardiovascular disease and cancer therapies. We train physicians and other healthcare providers in the emerging field of cardio-oncology. Through hands-on experience, text, internet-based publications, and educational conferences we regularly share our research and clinical experience in cardiovascular disease and cancer with the wider medical community. Perhaps most importantly, we provide extensive counseling and educational resources for patients and their significant others to take control of their cardiovascular health throughout the course of cancer and its treatment.
