15^th Global Cardiology Summit

Cardio-Oncology

Cardio-oncology is a term to describe the efforts to prevent or treat patients with cancer who face heart problems due to cancer treatments. Cardio-oncology involves oncologists, cardiologists and researchers work together. New therapies are helping the patients to live longer, but that means they also need ongoing cancer treatments that may damage their hearts. Many of the survivors are at risk for heart disease and heart problems and now will live long enough after their cancer treatments to develop heart disease. In addition to it, some medications for cancer treatment contribute for the damage of heart. The field of cardio-oncology is growing at a faster rate because the survivors after cancer therapies are more prone to develop cardiovascular disease. The increase in carcinogenesis in the world has led to the emergence of numerous chemotherapeutic agents which are under preclinical or clinical studies. The cardiotoxic effects of chemotherapy can be decreased by the concurrent use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or beta-blockers. The use of diagnostic imaging, noninvasive stress testing, serum biomarkers, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and ambulatory cardiac telemetry can help to identify cardiotoxicities and lead to the development of preventative strategies.