an interesting and disturbing link between cancer and heart disease

Headline (paywall):

New Link Discovered Between Heart Disease and Cancer
Some doctors recommend comprehensive treatment strategies that address the cause of disease over the ‘silver bullet’ approach of targeting symptoms.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center researchers have discovered that smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in arteries can behave like cancer cells, worsening atherosclerosis. Their study, published in Circulation, suggests that anticancer drugs could help prevent heart attacks and strokes caused by this condition.

Atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty plaques in arteries, is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Despite treatments like statins, the prevalence of atherosclerosis-related diseases continues to rise. Research published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine states that atherosclerosis “has now surpassed communicable diseases to become the world’s most prevalent killer.”

“Atherosclerosis has been known as a chronic inflammatory disease for several decades,” Dr. Huize Pan, lead author and assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University, told The Epoch Times. He explained that the new findings offer a fresh perspective by viewing the disease through a cancer lens, potentially identifying new drug targets for prevention and treatment.

Using advanced techniques on mice and tissue samples from atherosclerosis patients, the researchers aimed to understand how smooth muscle cells in the arteries begin to behave like cancer cells.

The researchers observed significant DNA damage and rapid cell growth in both human and mouse arteries affected by atherosclerosis. “DNA damage is one of the major features of cancer,” said Dr. Pan.

These SMCs displayed several cancer-like traits—they multiplied rapidly, resisted cell death, invaded surrounding areas, and showed increased DNA damage. This DNA damage, typically absent in healthy arteries, was common in atherosclerotic plaques and appeared to worsen the disease.

There was no indication that the cancer-like cells spread. “The cells stay inside existing plaques, which makes us think that they behave mostly like benign tumor cells, but more work needs to be done in humans and animal models to address this hypothesis,” noted Dr. Muredach Reilly, co-author of the study, in a press release.

[ ... ]

The study authors suggest that their research opens the door for further investigation into the cancer-like behavior of atherosclerosis. By identifying specific mutations and understanding DNA damage in patients, doctors could develop personalized therapies.

According to the authors, the broader concept, called “athero-oncology,” suggests that cancer treatments might revolutionize the treatment of atherosclerosis.

“If considering implications for human disease treatment, more pre-clinical work needs to be done, such as testing for side effects, deeper studies on how it works in atherosclerosis, and whether it influences other diseases,” Dr. Pan said.

“Our findings provide a new dimension to understand the disease pathogenesis from the tumor/cancer perspective, which is important for understanding the nature of the disease and figuring out druggable molecules for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, ” he concluded.

This is only initial research, but it's definitely both fascinating and disturbing.