A top British scientist thought that she had just pulled a muscle, but it turns out that she actually had terminal cancer.
Kirsty Smitten, 28, who has been included on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Europe’s science and healthcare category, has been diagnosed with a rare heart cancer.
Cardiac angiosarcoma is a type of tumor that occurs in the heart, typically in the right atrium, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, and obstructs the organ’s inflow or outflow of blood.
Last November, Smitten suddenly woke up with severe pain in her chest.
Since she was traveling to the United States a lot for work and going on planes, her mom thought it might be a blood clot, so they went to the hospital.
“Other than the fact I was in agony, all my health was absolutely fine. I didn’t have any problems with heart rate or anything,” Smitten told South West News Service.
She said that doctors there suspected that she had a pulled muscle in the gym and told her to take some codeine – but she felt like something else was wrong, so she waited 11 hours for a CT scan, which revealed a tumor in her heart.
“But then they did a CT scan for my blood clot and found a 6cm tumor in my heart, which, obviously, was a bit of a shock, because I had no other symptoms prior to that,” Smitten explained.
At first, the doctors didn’t think that the tumor was cancerous because it is a diagnosis that is extremely rare.
Only two people are diagnosed with it per year in the United Kingdom.
It took them three months to diagnose Smitten with cardiac angiosarcoma, and when they finally did, she was reportedly told that there was a 68% chance that she would die within the next year.
The doctors told her that the tumor wasn’t able to be operated on, but since Smitten is a scientist, she did more research into the disease and found that some people have had “pretty much their whole hearts” removed and rebuilt in surgery.
The Royal Marsden Hospital, a cancer care center in London, gave Smitten a second opinion, telling her that they would perform the surgery on her, which would give her only a 10% chance of living for five more years.
However, it’s unclear whether she will get it.
Since the cancer affects so few people, there hasn’t been a lot of research into the disease and, despite the illness being so serious, her heart is still operating at its full capacity, according to SWNS.
“If you saw me now and saw me when you get diagnosed, it’s just barbaric because I still look absolutely fine,” Smitten explained. “Other than the PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) in my arm, you wouldn’t know I was ill.”
“My friends are just like, ‘How on Earth is this going on? Because you just look the exact same.’ I can still walk and exercise and stuff.”
Despite the devastating detection, she is still continuing to work on her business, MetalloBio, which is working to develop a new class of antibiotics.
The idea first stemmed when she was completing her Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of Sheffield, where they created a drug that wipes out antibiotic-resistant superbugs, including ones that can cause afflictions like pneumonia, as well as urinary tract and blood infections, The Post previously reported.
Other pharmaceutical companies took an interest in the development, and Smitten was offered funding to set up MetalloBio in March 2021.
Now, she’s realizing just how important her potential drug could prove to be.
“I now see how important my work is, because if I get an infection I have about an hour to get IV antibiotics before it becomes fatal because with chemo I don’t have an immune system at the moment,” Smitten said.
She also admitted that her illness has impeded her future funding.
“I think it’s hit a lot of our investments,” she said. “A lot of the investors we have are very committed to me and how I built the company and the passion I have for what we’re doing and my drive to take it forward.
“As bad as it is, me being ill hampers that. If you take away that drive, is the company still going to succeed?” she added.
Before her diagnosis, Smitten did not have any health issues, she said, and was playing hockey and football daily.
She was also traveling to speak at different science conferences all over the world.
The scientist found a Facebook group for those who have cardiac angiosarcoma, but she said that she has had some struggles trying to find patients who suffer from the same disease.
“It’s usually people who are 20 to 30 years old; I don’t think they know why, and at that point, I had my whole life ahead of me,” she said.
“I thought I was going to have kids and a family and I’ve been told I’ve got seven months to live.”
