Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore, Maryland
Professor of Epidemiology and Oncology Director of Clinical Cancer Genetics and Prevention Service Member of Women’s Malignancy Program Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
Employing new technologies to investigate statin drugs and breast cancer survival.
Breast cancer is the number one cancer diagnosed among women worldwide and therefore a global public health problem. Even in developed nations such as the U.S., women with early-stage breast cancer face a substantial risk of recurrence and death. Multiple pre-clinical studies have shown that statins, drugs commonly used to treat high cholesterol, can have multiple anti-tumor effects. These findings are supported by epidemiological studies that have observed a decrease in breast cancer recurrence and an improvement in survival among women with early-stage breast cancer taking statins. The use of statins to improve survival in women with early-stage breast cancer is appealing given that they are already in widespread use, affordable, and well tolerated. Dr. Visvanathan is investigating the biological pathways that mediate the positive impact of statins on breast cancer. Identifying biomarkers associated with these pathways may help predict which patients would most likely benefit from statins.
Dr. Visvanathan is utilizing data from the UK Biobank–medical history, lifestyle, and biomarker status– from patients with breast cancer to identify potential indicators of response to statins. The first cohort includes 4,452 women aged 18+ years diagnosed with invasive breast cancer up to 10 years prior to enrollment. Among this group 12.4 percent were statin users at the time of biomarker measurement. The second cohort includes 6,366 women aged 18+ years who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during the follow-up period. Among this group 16 percent were statin users. Preliminary data suggests that lipophilic statins, those that effectively penetrate cell membranes, may have greater effect on cancer mortality among women with higher levels of “bad” cholesterol, LDL.
Dr. Visvanathan will conduct further analyses to confirm her findings and identify other predictive biomarkers. Her team will build on their findings by leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to predict how statins may affect breast cancer outcomes. To validate their findings, Dr. Visvanathan and her colleagues will collaborate with investigators from an established national trial that is evaluating statins.
Kala Visvanathan is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Visvanathan is Director the Clinical Cancer Genetics and Prevention Service and the Cancer Epidemiology Track at Johns Hopkins.
She received her medical degree from the University of Sydney in Australia. She subsequently went on to complete her training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, an academic teaching hospital of the University of Sydney in Australia and at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center Johns Hopkins School of Mediine. Dr. Visvanathan also completed training in clinical/cancer epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Her research is focused on primary and secondary prevention of breast and ovarian cancer. Trained as a medical oncologist and cancer epidemiologist, a large part of her research is transdisciplinary and focused on translating results from the laboratory to populations, to identify at risk groups, preventable targets and to evaluate agents that have the potential to impact the natural history of breast and ovarian cancer. She conducts both observational studies and clinical prevention/early detection studies Specific exposures of interest include hormonal exposures, inflammation, genetic and epigenetic changes, DNA damage/repair, obesity and oxidative damage. She has recently co-chaired the American Society of Clinical Oncology national guideline on breast cancer risk reduction.
2004
The Delta Air Lines Award
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