Practical Cardio-Oncology with Dr. Dent
By: Julie Poucher Harbin, Senior Writer, DCI
This article was originally published in Oct. 2019. The sidebar to this article (at right) has since been updated, Jan. 29, 2021, with additional links to the latest research — in observance of American Heart Month (Feb. 2021).
Medical oncologist and cardio-oncology specialist Susan Dent, MD, FRCPC, is the editor of a new book Practical Cardio-Oncology (Oct. 16, 2019) that provides healthcare providers and trainees with practical advice on the care and management of cancer patients who have experienced cancer therapy related disfunction or who have underlying cardiovascular disease or risk factors that predispose them to cardiovascular toxicity.
The book's key features include a focus on the practical elements of cardio-oncology care; the importance and process of setting up a cardio-oncology unit and cardio-oncology fellowships; advice and guidance on the set up and common pit falls of coordinating care for cardio-oncology patients; current guidelines and potential future directions for the field of cardio-oncology.
"The current best practices described in this book are based on the current knowledge of experts in the field," said Dent, who co-directs the Cardio-Oncology program at Duke and serves as associate director of Clinical Research in Duke Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Disease Group. "The authors hope, through their efforts, that all healthcare providers with an interest in cardio-oncology continue to help define and optimize patient care into the future through their involvement in collaborative multi-disciplinary research."
Previous to joining Duke in September 2018, Dent was a medical oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
She is the founder of the Ottawa Cardiac Oncology Program as well as the Canadian Cardiac Oncology Network, organizations dedicated to improving our understanding of how cancer treatments impact cardiovascular health with the ultimate goal of preventing cardiotoxicity.
In 2015, she launched the Global Cardio-Oncology Summit (GCOS), an annual meeting which now attracts oncologists, cardiologists, and allied health care providers from around the world.
Dent is recognized as a global leader in cardio-oncology and has published extensively in this area, including co-authoring a number of position statements and clinical practice guidelines. She is an associate editor of Cardio-Oncology, the first dedicated peer reviewed journal in this new discipline. Dent currently serves as vice president of the International Cardio-Oncology Society (ICOS), an organization dedicated to bringing cardiologists, oncologists, and allied health care providers together, to improve the clinical care of patients and save lives.
