Advanced Heart Care Close to Home

Cancer treatment can save lives—but for some people, it can also be hard on the heart.

Wellstar's Cardio-Oncology Program provides specialized care to address this risk. The program offers cancer-focused heart care that helps protect cardiovascular health before, during and after treatment.

Our cardio-oncology experts support people with cancer who have heart disease, are at high risk for heart problems or are receiving therapies that may affect heart function. By monitoring heart health and coordinating care, we help people receive the most appropriate cancer treatment while reducing the risk of heart complications.

Expertise in heart disease and cancer care

Researchers have identified a connection between cancer care and cardiovascular health, leading to the creation of cardio-oncology. At Wellstar, this specialized care is available in metro Atlanta and Augusta, expanding access for people across Georgia.

“Cardio-oncology exists because more people are surviving cancer and living long enough to face heart-related complications,” said Dr. Avirup Guha, a board-certified cardio-oncologist at Wellstar Georgia Cancer Center and the first designated fellow of the International Cardio-Oncology Society in Georgia. “For some patients, cancer treatments can damage their heart. For others, they may have existing cardiovascular disease that needs careful management during cancer care. That requires expertise beyond cardiology—knowing how to modify therapy without causing harm.”

Cardio-oncologists are cardiologists with advanced training in how cancer therapies affect the heart. They help guide treatment decisions and work closely with oncology teams to ensure patients receive safe, effective care.

“A lot of oncology treatments are very effective for cancer, but the heart can become an innocent bystander,” said Wellstar Cardio-Oncologist Dr. Nikolas Krishna, who also specializes in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. “We advocate for these patients so their oncology and cardiology teams work together for the best possible outcome.”

Coordinated, team-based care

Multidisciplinary collaboration is central to Wellstar Cardio-Oncology. Cardiologists, oncologists, nurse navigators and other specialists communicate directly to align care and support both cancer outcomes and heart health.

“Our program helps address complications before they happen and streamlines care so people aren’t going back and forth between specialists,” Dr. Guha said.

Wellstar Cardio-Oncology teams partner with patients and families to understand risks and create a personalized plan. This may include imaging, blood tests and ongoing monitoring to detect early signs of heart conditions during chemotherapy, hormone therapy or radiation.

Additionally, Wellstar Cardio-Oncology nurse navigators—registered nurses with advanced training—provide compassionate guidance throughout the care journey.

“Nurse navigation plays a key role in educating patients and making sure they .understand their care plan,” said Dr. Guha. “It’s all about communication.”

Who can benefit from cardio-oncology care

Cardio-oncology care supports people from diagnosis through survivorship, especially when treatments or existing conditions may affect heart health.

You may benefit from cardio-oncology services if you have cancer or were treated for cancer within the past five years and you:

• Have heart failure or another existing heart condition
• Are at high risk for heart disease
• Have experienced cardiovascular complications after cancer treatment
• Require chemotherapy that may be cardiotoxic or radiation therapy to the chest

Some cancer treatments can weaken the heart muscle or alter heart function, making monitoring and early intervention essential. Therapies known to affect the heart include anthracyclines, platinum-based chemotherapy, HER2-targeted therapies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and fluoropyrimidines.

“Too often we see patients years after treatment when heart problems have already developed,” Dr. Krishna said. “By screening earlier and seeing patients upstream, we can prevent disease rather than treat it after it occurs.”

Support that extends into survivorship

When cancer treatment ends, Wellstar Cardio-Oncology teams continue monitoring heart health and providing preventive care tailored to each person’s history.

“Survivors may face accelerated cardiovascular risks years later,” said Dr. Krishna. “By continuing to screen and monitor, we can help catch any issues and protect their long-term health and quality of life.”

This ongoing care gives patients greater peace of mind as they navigate recovery.

“We want patients to know we are a layer of reassurance,” Dr. Krishna said. “They don’t have to worry about treatment hurting their heart—we are here to protect it so they can focus on healing.”

By combining advanced expertise, early monitoring and compassionate support, Wellstar’s Cardio-Oncology Program helps people face cancer with confidence.

Learn more about cardio-oncology services at Wellstar.

Pat Gelisse has been dancing for 30 years. She even taught the Carolina shag for a while. It’s a partner dance, sometimes compared to Swing dancing to beach music.

But severe heart failure downgraded Pat’s dancing queen status for close to 10 years.

“I went from feeling happy to feeling like a nothing,” she remembered of that time in her life.

With a team of Wellstar heart specialists working together for her, Pat found hope and new life on the dance floor.

Heart failure masquerades as acid reflux

It started more than a decade ago when Pat lived in central Georgia. She scheduled a doctor’s appointment for what she thought was acid reflux. She popped in on a quick break from her marketing job, assuming it wouldn’t take long.

Blood work and an EKG got Pat a ticket straight to the hospital and a quadruple bypass. 

“My heart got worse; it wasn’t pumping blood,” Pat said.

She was in acute heart failure, a life-threatening condition where the heart doesn’t pump well enough to deliver the necessary amount of oxygen to her body. Pat’s ejection fraction (EF)—the percentage measurement of the blood that leaves the heart each time it pumps—was only 10%. The normal range is 50 to 70%.

It was a scary time, and with a family history of heart problems, Pat was worried. She’d lost both parents to heart failure, as well as other family members.

“I just knew for sure I was going to be next,” said Pat.

Doctors from various academic institutions discussed serious treatments ranging from LVAD to transplant, but because the pumping performance of her heart improved, she was no longer a candidate for those procedures. Instead, Pat spent close to nine years managing her heart failure with a pacemaker and various medications—treatments that failed to get her back on the dance floor.

There aren’t many people out there who can say they survived cardiac arrest at 30. Kevin Miskewicz can.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 90% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die. Those who survive often have permanent neurological disabilities. But Kevin’s story has an incredibly fortunate ending, thanks to the highly coordinated work of his medical experts at Wellstar.

Recovering from cardiac arrest is something Kevin will never forget. It lives forever as a piece of his health history—one that includes a dedicated healthcare team—and his wife, who was the first to save his life.

CPR to the rescue

Kevin woke up on Labor Day 2017 at 5:30 AM to take the dog out. Pausing to adjust the thermostat as he came in, he fell, knocking over a lamp.

He was in cardiac arrest.

With no symptoms and no known pre-existing condition, this was unexpected, but that didn’t stop his wife, Andrea, from jumping into action.

“If it weren’t for me knocking over a lamp when I passed out,” said Kevin, “she would have never woken up and saved my life.”

In addition to calling 911 and unlocking the door for the paramedics, Andrea performed CPR for 10 minutes.

“Kevin’s wife doing good CPR was critical,” said Dr. Arthur Reitman, the interventional cardiologist who was a vital part of Kevin’s treatment team at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center. “More than five minutes of poor blood flow to the brain can result in permanent irreparable injury from which a patient is unable to recover.”

Coordinating multidisciplinary care to save a life

When paramedics arrived at Kevin’s home, he had no pulse and was not breathing. As the paramedics performed their lifesaving work, he technically died two times.

The ambulance took him to Wellstar North Fulton Medical Center, where he was initially assessed and treated by Dr. David Jacoboff. The interventional cardiologist implanted an intra-aortic balloon pump to stabilize him. Then, he transferred Kevin to Wellstar Kennestone for highly specialized heart care.

When Kevin arrived at Wellstar Kennestone by helicopter, his heart function wasn’t strong enough to support his body. Dr. Reitman and a team of doctors including a cardiologist, a pulmonologist and critical care doctors worked in tandem to put Kevin on an advanced life support system called veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Better known as VA-ECMO, it took the heart “offline” so it could heal. The technology removed unoxygenated blood from his body, oxygenated it and pumped it back in for the next three days.

“Very few places in the state—only four or five hospitals—have the technology and specialized training to put a patient on ECMO,” Dr. Reitman explained.