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“It’s really exciting to look at how the organs interact — that you can have an illness in one part of the body that can also lead to heart disease, either as a result of the illness itself or its treatment.”

So says Adelina Yafasova, PhD student at the Department of Cardiology at Rigshospitalet and recipient of the Lundbeck Foundation Talent Prize 2025. She began doing research during the bachelor’s part of her medical studies, and her research has already introduced her to several medical specialties.

“I don’t really see myself as a cardiology experimentalist. I see myself as an interdisciplinary researcher — someone who studies diseases outside the heart and examines how these diseases affect the risk of developing heart disease,” says Adelina Yafasova.

“It’s interesting to work with this patient group because they often fall between two chairs and can become very frustrated, as their condition is difficult to diagnose. They risk being overlooked because we as doctors are sometimes very focused on precisely the area, we specialize in.”

Testing a new scan for cardiac sarcoidosis

At Rigshospitalet, Adelina Yafasova has conducted research on, among other things, stroke, heart failure treatment using an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), and sarcoidosis – an autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs, including the heart.

By using national registries in her research, she has shown that sarcoidosis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases increase the long-term risk of developing cardiovascular disease. This had previously only been shown in small studies, so her registry studies have also attracted international attention.

“Our results have helped doctors pay increased attention to cardiovascular disease when they see patients with, for example, sarcoidosis or lupus — so that these patients can be referred to a cardiology department if relevant,” says Adelina Yafasova.

Cardiac sarcoidosis can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms can resemble those of other conditions. Therefore, Adelina Yafasova has conducted a clinical study testing a new type of scan to diagnose patients with cardiac sarcoidosis — specifically, a PET scan with a new type of tracer. All patients for the study have now been included, and she is about to analyze the results.

“We very much hope that this new type of scan can improve our ability to detect cardiac sarcoidosis so that patients can begin treatment earlier and improve their chances of survival. It’s a very serious disease that we still don’t know enough about,” says Adelina Yafasova.

She also hopes that, over time, it will become possible to establish a national and international database of patients with cardiac sarcoidosis, which could help fill existing knowledge gaps and later be used to design new studies on the disease.

Cancer and cardiovascular disease

Adelina Yafasova has also embarked on another research area that aligns with her interdisciplinary interests: the increased risk of cardiovascular disease among cancer survivors. While short-term risks are known, long-term risks are not well documented.

“It’s an important but also overlooked topic that’s becoming increasingly relevant because treatment for many cancers has improved so much. There’s now a large group of patients who survive cancer but live with late effects from the treatment or the disease itself. For example, side effects from chemotherapy can damage the heart,” says Adelina Yafasova.

She has already entered collaboration with oncologists and haematologists on this topic. Together, they are now investigating the risk of various types of cardiovascular disease among long-term cancer survivors. In the future, they also hope to explore how to prevent cardiovascular disease in this group — and whether certain patients might benefit particularly from preventive measures.

Aiming to buy time for research

During her PhD studies, Adelina Yafasova became a mother of two. She has therefore also experienced the challenges of balancing a research career with family life.

“I have to make tough priorities and make compromises, because you can’t be part of everything. It often means working evenings to stay flexible during the day.”

The flexibility of the PhD program has been a great help to her, as it allows her to organize her work independently. After completing her PhD, she expects to begin specialist medical training:

“If we want to inspire people to go into research in the long term, it’s important to create good conditions that make it possible,” says Adelina Yafasova.

That’s why she plans to use the DKK 200,000 research grant from the Lundbeck Foundation Talent Prize to buy herself time for research:

“That way, I can continue my research while I’m training to become a specialist doctor after my PhD.”