OnCo
technologiesTechnologyEstablished

Cardio-oncology

Protecting the heart from cancer treatments, which is increasingly important as patients live longer.

Anthracycline and trastuzumab cardiotoxicity, checkpoint-inhibitor myocarditis, TKI hypertension and QT prolongation, and radiation heart disease. Baseline and serial echocardiography with strain imaging, troponin/BNP monitoring, and cardioprotective drugs (dexrazoxane, ACE inhibitors, statins).

Schematic · not to scale
Heart under treatment · Echo / troponin surveillance

How it works

Risk stratification, surveillance, and prevention integrated into oncology care.

Strengths
  • Enables completion of curative therapy
Limitations
  • Workforce and access

Products

1top
ApprovedCytotoxic chemotherapy (anthracycline)
Doxorubicin · Adriamycin

The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.

Key papers

1top
guidelineJournal of Clinical Oncology 2021changed practice
ASCO 2021 guideline: how to recognise and manage the immune-related side effects of checkpoint inhibitors

Checkpoint inhibitors are now given to hundreds of thousands of patients a year, many in community clinics and emergency departments, so a common, explicit playbook for their autoimmune side effects saves lives. The guideline standardised when to stop, when to give steroids and when to escalate, and made multidisciplinary toxicity teams routine. It does not remove the judgement needed for rare events or for patients whose cancer is responding.

Latest papers

top
Literature trend1,538 papers in the last 12 months+20% vs prior 12How this is computed
Latest papers · live from Europe PMC
Open in Europe PMC

Query for this technology: (TITLE:"cardio-oncology" OR ABSTRACT:"cardio-oncology" OR TITLE:"cardiotoxicity" OR ABSTRACT:"cardiotoxicity") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Cardio-oncology, not a curated reading list.

Connected

35top

cancers

7
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemiaHER2-positive breast cancerHodgkin lymphomaHR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancerNeuroblastoma (paediatric)Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)Thymoma and thymic carcinoma

fronts

1
Supportive Care & Survivorship

technologies

4
Cancer neuroscience: cutting the nerve supplyExercise during chemotherapy and radiotherapySenolytics and senescence-directed therapySurvivorship care and late-effects surveillance

drugs

1
ApprovedCytotoxic chemotherapy (anthracycline)
Doxorubicin · Adriamycin

institutions

1
Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer

terms

5
Anthracyclines (doxorubicin, epirubicin)Cardiotoxicity (LVEF decline, cardiomyopathy)Immune-related myocarditisSide effect versus adverse eventTrastuzumab cardiotoxicity

pairings

2
Caution: cumulative anthracycline dose and the heartCaution: ibrutinib in patients with cardiac risk

roadmaps

1
Paths to cures: interception, eradication, control

ideas

6
A dedicated programme for cachexia and treatment toxicity researchA risk-stratified cardio-oncology pathway for everyone receiving heart-toxic cancer therapyA survivor biobank to find who will develop late effects before they doA survivorship research endowment funded by a levy on curative therapy pricesBiomarker-guided cardioprotection for everyone on cardiotoxic cancer therapyRisk-stratified lifelong care for tens of millions of survivors, automated and shared with primary care

people

2
Evandro de AzambujaGary H. Lyman

bottlenecks

4
Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patientOlder and multimorbid patients are excluded and undertreatedSurvivorship and late effects are neglectedToxicity and quality of life are undervalued

key papers

1
ASCO 2021 guideline: how to recognise and manage the immune-related side effects of checkpoint inhibitors