Winner of the Best Student Presentation Award at the National Health Research Conference (NHRC) 2018 and Resident Physician at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Dr. Charisse Best, addresses recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, on a study undertaken in partial fulfilment of her Doctor of Medicine (DM) programme. (Photo: JIS)
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Student Researcher, Dr Charisse Best, is calling on breast cancer patients and their medical practitioners to be aware of the increased risk for cardiovascular disease and has made some recommendations.
Best, who was winner of the best student entry at the Ninth Annual National Health Research Conference 2018, shared the findings of her award winning study at a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’.
The research progamme was done in partial fulfilment of her Doctor of Medicine (DM) degree, and was titled the Prevalence of risk factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Breast Cancer patients treated with Anthracycline Based Therapy at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
“The research looked at the baseline risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the patient related risk factors, some of which we can do nothing about (age, ethnicity and sex) as well as modifiable risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity,” she explained.
“We also looked at therapy-related risk factors, where, though beneficial, some of the treatments can affect the heart,” she added.
According to Dr Best, who is a resident at the University Hospital of the West Indies and a part of the post-graduate Programme of Haematology and Oncology, the study also looked at measures that were implemented to modify the risk factors.
The study showed that 78 per cent of patients who had non-metastatic breast cancer, who were treated with anthracycline based therapy, which is one of the standard treatments for breast cancer, actually had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which she said is quite an alarming percentage.
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