Heart cancer is so rare it shows up in less than 1% of autopsies. Cancer cells pass through the heart constantly. Dr. Samantha Yammine says scientists have finally found a clue about why it almost never takes hold there.

A study published in Science compared mouse hearts that could beat with hearts that could not. When both were injected with cancer cells, the non-beating hearts developed tumours readily. The beating hearts almost never did. Dr. Samantha Yammine says researchers also replicated the finding in heart cells grown in a dish: remove the calcium that makes them beat, add cancer cells, and they grow. Keep them beating, and the cancer largely fails to colonise.

The why is still open. But Dr. Samantha Yammine says the next question is whether that mechanical protection can be applied elsewhere.

Topics: heart cancer research, heartbeat cancer protection, cancer biology, Science journal study, heart tumour prevention

GUEST: Dr. Samantha Yammine | http://samanthayammine.com

Originally aired on 2026-05-01