Kala Visvanathan, MD, MHS

2012-2013 BCRF Project:
(made possible by generous support from ANN INC.)

Dr. Visvanathan continues to make progress on a number of studies related to high risk women. Her pilot study evaluating the short-term effects of the removal of the ovaries on multiple health outcomes is close to completion. Her team has recently published data supporting the monitoring of young women who undergo oophorectomy at a young age for weight gain and for cardiovascular risk. They also have just completed a review of benign breast biopsies in a cohort of high-risk women. Lastly, they are currently evaluating differences in immune response pathways in both healthy high-risk women and breast cancer survivors.

Mid-year Progress: Dr. Visvanathan is continuing to evaluate the susceptibility of breast cancer and other health outcomes in women with a family history and or BRCA1/2 mutation. Their pilot study evaluating the short-term effects of the removal of the ovaries on multiple health outcomes has now been completed. They will continue to evaluate differences in immune response pathways in both healthy high-risk women and breast cancer survivors.

Bio:
Dr. Visvanathan received her medical degree from the University of Sydney in Australia in 1989. She subsequently went on to complete her training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology including a period as Chief Resident at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney in Australia. She received her Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology in 1996.

Since then she has obtained a Masters in Clinical/Cancer epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and done further retraining in Oncology at Johns Hopkins in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr Visvanathan joined the faculty in Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2002, and the faculty in Medical Oncology, at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins, in 2003. She is also a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research.

Trained as a medical oncologist and cancer epidemiologist, Dr Visvanathan's primary research interest is in the prevention and control of breast cancer. In particular, her focus is on the evaluation of novel genetic, molecular, and dietary biomarkers of risk and early detection in breast cancer, with an aim to modify those factors in the causal pathway with effective chemoprevention strategies.