Feb. 12--As a kid, Gaile Sabaliauskas thought she might grow up to become a physicist.
But after volunteering at a local hospital and growing to love the connections she made with patients, she turned her keen eye toward human bodies, rather than celestial ones.
Sabaliauskas, 44, is a cardiologist at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where she ushered in a cardio-oncology program to protect the hearts of patients undergoing cancer treatments, which can damage the heart.
"Because patients are living longer and because newer treatments are helping patients survive their cancers," Sabaliauskas said, "we're starting to see the heart effects of the cancer treatments -- whether on the heart muscle itself or the development of high blood pressure or coronary disease that would put them at risk of heart attacks."
Sabaliauskas is also a cancer survivor. At 42, with an Irish dance-loving 9-year-old daughter and a soccer-loving 7-year-old son at home, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"It was a total shock," she told me. "I was young. I was healthy. I exercised. I ate well. And there was no family history, so I didn't fit the mold of what people might think of as a cancer patient. But there really is no mold."
A routine mammogram came back abnormal, and almost immediately, Sabaliauskas found herself in the fight of her life. Three surgeries, four months of chemotherapy and two months of radiation later, she appears to have emerged the victor.
And she's determined to put the experience to good use. Which is what inspired her to push for the cardio-oncology program.
"Before I went on medical leave, I was seeing patients whose hearts were already afflicted by their cancer treatments and they had to stop the treatments," she said. "That's very distressing, to say the least. I was seeing them after the fact, when it was too late. I knew when I came back I wanted to help people at the forefront of their treatment."
Several other hospitals in the United States have cardio-oncology programs, Sabaliauskas said, and she's working with other physicians to implement a similar approach in all Advocate hospitals nationwide.
Here's how it works: Before patients start cancer treatment, doctors screen them to assess their risk of heart damage. High-risk patients include those who will undergo cardiotoxic chemotherapy, those who need radiation on the left side of their bodies, older patients, and patients with pre-existing heart disease or a strong family history of heart disease.
"Once we identify them, we know from smaller studies we can implement heart medicine at the forefront and protect their hearts during treatment, and we can keep an eye on their hearts as we follow up with them long-term," Sabaliauskas said. "Five, 10, 20 years down the line."
Which is a stretch of time she knows to be grateful for -- both as a physician and as a survivor.
"I always thought of myself as a compassionate physician," she said. "But now I really feel that I'm helping my patients in a spiritual and emotional way too, which is how I like to practice medicine."
Shortly after Sabaliauskas completed her final round of radiation, she and her husband and their kids, now 11 and 9, traveled to the Grand Canyon to celebrate.
"My daughter did her state project for school on Arizona and she built a model of the Grand Canyon, so they really wanted to go there," she said. "A few months earlier we went to Universal Studios and I couldn't walk. My legs just collapsed from the chemo. But four weeks after radiation, we went to the canyon and it was good. I was good."
The trip was, she said, her first sign that she'd be OK.
She and her kids posed in front of the Grand Canyon with hand-made signs. "Mom kicked cancer's butt," read one. "There is life after cancer and it is ... majestic," read another.
A story that warms the heart, on this Valentine's Day.
hstevens@tribpub.com
