The connection between both diseases is the focus of an editorial comment published in the magazine “Circulation” of the American Heart Association, prepared by the Professor of the Faculty of chemical sciences and Farmaceutidas of U. Chile and director of the Center for advanced studies of chronic diseases (ACCDiS ) Sergio Lavandero, next the researchers Richard N. Kitsis and Jaime Riquelme. The proposed pioneer analyzes the bidirectionality of both chronic diseases, with a different reading than the traditional.

The discovery that a heart that has initially experienced myocardial infarction and subsequently progresses to heart failure, It is capable of producing and secreting factors into the bloodstream that stimulate the development of intestinal polyps, themselves that they are precursors of colon cancer, has made it possible to describe the relationship between heart disease and cancer.

This is explained by the editorial commentary Heart Disease and Cancer – Are the Two Killers Colluding?, published by a research group consisting of Sergio Lavandero, Pharmaceutical and chemical sciences and director of ACCDiS academic, Jaime A. Riquelme and Richard N. Kitsis, in which studied the relationship between both pathologies, which take more lives worldwide, describing them as “two murderers involved”.

Previously already had shown that there could be connections between these diseases, taking into account some epidemiological reports that showed that people with hypertension, arrhythmia, heart failure or other heart-related illnesses, they are more likely to develop cancer.

However, It had never shown a mechanism, even though there is research at the ACCDiS Centre that sees this issue, supporting doctoral and post-doctoral thesis who study this interconnection.

This publication becomes an important milestone, as issues in which deepens are precisely the object of study of the Center. “Previously, we knew that there was a relationship between these two diseases, Since those who are treated with medicine or radiation cancer experience damage to the heart, therefore a discipline called Cardio-Oncology has been developed, to try to predict and help these patients with cancer who undergo heart problems”, explained Sergio Lavandero.

The director of the ACCDiS added that the publication “It puts a different perspective that is upside down: how heart disease predisposes to cancer development, therefore for ACCDis it is vitally important to publish this study and symbolically be in August, heart month, time in which we inform and deliver data on risk factors of diseases afflicting the population”.

Among the information that delivers the item, are described five molecules which are able to stimulate the proliferation of polyps and tumor development, forming a proposed pioneer by analyzing the bidirectionality of these chronic diseases, showing a different to the traditional perspective based on the relationship, i.e., from heart disease to cancer development.