Heart Health Should Not be Ignored while Treating Cancer

Oncology Heart Health Should Not be Ignored while Treating Cancer

2024-12-16 Source: Press release ESC 4 min Reading Time

Related Vendor

Experts from the European Society of Cardiology have emphasized that heart and cardiovascular health must be included as early as possible in the patient’s cancer treatment plan to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Sophia Antipolis/France – The devastating news of a cancer diagnosis understandably makes doctors and patients focus on the cancer itself. However, experts in cardio-oncology from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) emphasize that heart and cardiovascular health must be included as early as possible in the patient’s cancer treatment plan to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Due to an ageing population, and a growing number of cancer diagnoses there is also an increasing number of patients with cardiovascular side effects of cancer treatment. To tackle this growing problem, the ESC is launching a new conference on cardio-oncology to specifically target this increasingly important area that overlaps cancer treatment and its associated cardiovascular disease (CVD) side effects. ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025 will take place in Florence, Italy, from Friday, 20 June - Saturday, 21 June 2025.

Previous research from prospective registries published in the European Heart Journal estimate that approximately one-third (32 %) of patients experience mild toxicities that could potentially progress in severity without adequate monitoring, while 3 % develop moderate toxicity and a further 3 % the most severe toxicity.

“The main goal of this emerging specialty of cardio-oncology is to reduce the burden of CVD in cancer patients allowing them to receive the best anticancer therapy (chemotherapy, targeted molecular therapies, hormone therapy, immunotherapy or radiotherapy) with the lowest rate of side effects and treatment interruptions,” explains Dr Teresa López-Fernandez, University Hospital La Paz - Madrid, Spain and co-Chair of the ESC Cardio-Oncology Guidelines Task Force.

“We could soon be facing cardio-oncology ‘epidemic’ due to either the growing population of cancer survivors, the increasing number of patients aged over 65 who need chronic cancer therapy, and the high frequency of cancer therapy induced CVDs in these populations,” says Dr. Alexander Lyon, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK, and also co-Chair of the ESC Cardio-Oncology Guidelines Task Force.

Concerns about the increasing prevalence of cardiotoxicity caused by cancer therapies led to the ESC establishing, in 2018, the Council of Cardio-Oncology as a multidisciplinary constituent body which encourages the prevention, early diagnosis and management of cancer therapy-related CVD. Today, the council brings together over 2,000 members worldwide and a team of volunteers, part of the Council of Cardio-Oncology Board.

In 2022, the Guidelines Taskforce, led by Drs López-Fernandez and Lyon, published the first ever ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines on cardio-oncology. These guidelines include advice on how to conduct an assessment of cardiovascular toxicity risk, in collaboration with the cardio-oncology team, using specific risk scores; the implementation of preventive strategies in high-risk patients; and analysis of methods to monitor cancer treatments with advanced cardiac imaging techniques (including MRI and strain) and biomarkers.

They also include techniques of early management of potential cardiac toxicities, aiming to maintain cancer treatment whenever cardiac toxicity is manageable, and the patient remains stable; and also, advice on carrying out long-term follow-up of cancer survivors who have received treatments with potential late cardiovascular effects.

"Cardio-oncology teams design effective 'shields' to protect the hearts of oncology patients," says Dr. López-Fernandez. “The teamwork between cardiologists and cancer specialists promotes the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in cancer survivors.”

The Guidelines provide highly detailed explanations of cancer therapy-related CV toxicity (CTR-CVT), and various examples of this including cardiac dysfunction, arrhythmias, hypertension (arterial and pulmonary), thrombosis. If cardiac dysfunction is detected, cardiology and oncology teams are strongly recommended to discuss the pros and cons of continuing versus stopping cancer treatment. Dr. Lyon comments: “Our mission is always to ensure that cancer patients have the best and most effective cancer treatment safely, and to prevent interruptions in their cancer treatment due to cardiovascular problems which could have been prevented.”

Subscribe to the newsletter now

Don't Miss out on Our Best Content

Business E-mail

Please enter a valid mailadress.

By clicking on „Subscribe to Newsletter“ I agree to the processing and use of my data according to the consent form (please expand for details) and accept the Terms of Use. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. The consent declaration relates, among other things, to the sending of editorial newsletters by email and to data matching for marketing purposes with selected advertising partners (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, Meta)

Date: 08.12.2025

Naturally, we always handle your personal data responsibly. Any personal data we receive from you is processed in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. For detailed information please see our privacy policy.

Consent to the use of data for promotional purposes

I hereby consent to Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG, Max-Planck-Str. 7-9, 97082 Würzburg including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG (hereafter: Vogel Communications Group) using my e-mail address to send editorial newsletters. A list of all affiliated companies can be found here

Newsletter content may include all products and services of any companies mentioned above, including for example specialist journals and books, events and fairs as well as event-related products and services, print and digital media offers and services such as additional (editorial) newsletters, raffles, lead campaigns, market research both online and offline, specialist webportals and e-learning offers. In case my personal telephone number has also been collected, it may be used for offers of aforementioned products, for services of the companies mentioned above, and market research purposes.

Additionally, my consent also includes the processing of my email address and telephone number for data matching for marketing purposes with select advertising partners such as LinkedIn, Google, and Meta. For this, Vogel Communications Group may transmit said data in hashed form to the advertising partners who then use said data to determine whether I am also a member of the mentioned advertising partner portals. Vogel Communications Group uses this feature for the purposes of re-targeting (up-selling, cross-selling, and customer loyalty), generating so-called look-alike audiences for acquisition of new customers, and as basis for exclusion for on-going advertising campaigns. Further information can be found in section “data matching for marketing purposes”.

In case I access protected data on Internet portals of Vogel Communications Group including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG, I need to provide further data in order to register for the access to such content. In return for this free access to editorial content, my data may be used in accordance with this consent for the purposes stated here. This does not apply to data matching for marketing purposes.

Right of revocation

I understand that I can revoke my consent at will. My revocation does not change the lawfulness of data processing that was conducted based on my consent leading up to my revocation. One option to declare my revocation is to use the contact form found at https://contact.vogel.de. In case I no longer wish to receive certain newsletters, I have subscribed to, I can also click on the unsubscribe link included at the end of a newsletter. Further information regarding my right of revocation and the implementation of it as well as the consequences of my revocation can be found in the data protection declaration, section editorial newsletter.

Populations needing special considerations, including children and adolescents and pregnant women with cancer, are also all addressed in the Guidelines.

“As the global population grows older, we will see more and more people with cancer and thus more and more with toxic CVD side-effects of cancer treatment,” says Dr. López-Fernandez.

Dr. Lyon adds: “This specialized area of medicine is one that is only going to grow, and as such we and other experts at the European Society of Cardiology believe the time has come to have a global forum, in the form of our first ever ESC Cardio-Oncology conference, to gather global experts to ensure better outcomes for this growing patient group.”

And as an example of the Council’s commitment to advancing the field, they are currently collaborating in the Resilience Trial, an EU-funded randomized controlled trial focused on exploring novel strategies to prevent anthracycline cardiotoxicity. At ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025, the council will host a dedicated session with the Resilience team.

(ID:50267556)