Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 19, 2025
Enhancing Tumor Content through Tumor Macrodissection
Published on: February 12, 2022
Rationale for setting up a cardio-oncology unit: our experience at Mayo Clinic
Sergio Barros-Gomes1, Joerg Herrmann1, Sharon L Mulvagh1
1Mayo Clinic, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
Insights
Cardio-oncology integrates cardiology and oncology to manage cancer treatment's cardiovascular side effects. This multidisciplinary approach aims to improve patient outcomes by preventing, detecting, and treating cardiotoxicity.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Oncology
- Cardio-Oncology
Background:
- Anticancer therapies improve cancer survival but can cause adverse cardiovascular effects.
- Cardiovascular complications are a significant concern for cancer patients and healthcare providers.
- Managing cancer treatment risks requires a coordinated approach.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the rationale for establishing cardio-oncology units.
- To share experiences in developing cardio-oncology services.
- To outline key considerations for evaluating and managing cancer patients with cardiovascular disease.
Main Methods:
- Review article synthesizing current knowledge and clinical experience.
- Focus on the multidisciplinary approach in cardio-oncology.
- Discussion of the balance between cancer treatment benefits and cardiovascular risks.
Main Results:
- Cardiotoxicity from cancer therapies can lead to severe outcomes like heart failure and cardiac death.
- Cardio-oncology is an emerging subspecialty addressing cardiovascular care in cancer patients.
- This field involves collaboration between oncologists, cardiologists, and other specialists for prevention, detection, monitoring, and treatment.
Conclusions:
- Cardio-oncology provides essential interdisciplinary care for cancer patients with or without cardiovascular disease.
- Collaborative efforts in cardio-oncology can reduce treatment-related cardiovascular complications.
- Improved clinical outcomes for cancer patients are achievable through integrated cardio-oncology services.
Background:
The diagnosis and management of cardiovascular complications have become a clinical concern for oncologists, cardiologists, surgeons, interventional radiologists, radiation therapy physicians, internists, nurses, pharmacists, administrators, and all the stakeholders involved in the care of cancer patients. Anticancer therapies have extended the lives of patients with cancer, but for some this benefit is attenuated by adverse cardiovascular effects.
Methods:
This review article aims to provide an overview of the rationale of setting up a cardio-oncology unit and reflect on our own experience establishing this service, and conclude with some fundamental aspects of consideration for evaluation and management of patients with cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Results:
Cardiotoxicity can lead to congestive heart failure and cardiac death. In fact, chemotherapy-related cardiac dysfunction may carry one of the worst prognoses of all types of cardiomyopathies, and has a profound impact on morbidity and mortality in oncology patients. Other complex clinical situations involve cancer patients who might benefit from a highly curative drug in terms of cancer survival but face limitations of its administration because of concomitant cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, the balance between the benefits and risks of the cancer therapy regimen in the context of the cardiovascular status of the individual patient can sometimes be extraordinarily challenging. A subspecialty with a multidisciplinary integrative approach between oncologists, hematologists, cardiologists, among others has thus emerged to address these issues, termed cardio-oncology. Cardio-oncology addresses the spectrum of prevention, detection, monitoring and treatment of cancer patients with cardiovascular diseases, or at risk for cardiotoxicity, in a multidisciplinary manner. In this field, cardiologists assist oncologists and hematologists with cardiovascular recommendations. This can be mediated through e-consultations or face-to-face evaluations.
Conclusion:
Cardio-oncology is a subspecialty that assists in the overall care of cancer patients with and without cardiovascular disease in an interdisciplinary fashion. We believe that this partnership of sharing responsibilities and experiences among health-care team members can potentially decrease cancer therapeutics-related cardiovascular complications and improve clinical outcomes.
