Cardiovascular risk in cancer patients: initial experience from a cardio-oncology clinic in Mexico

To describe the cardiovascular risk from Mexican patients scheduled to initiate cancer treatment and to compare the risk between oncological and hematological malignancies.

We enrolled patients referred for echocardiography before initiating cancer therapies. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and global longitudinal strain (GLS) was evaluated. To estimate the risk for developing cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT) we used the Heart Failure Association-International Cardio-Oncology Society risk score (HFA-ICOS).

106 patients were studied, 83% (n = 88) had an oncological, and 17% (n = 18) a hematological malignancy. Breast cancer represented 89.8% (n = 79) of the oncological and lymphoma 61.1% (n = 11) of the hematological malignancies. Patients with oncological malignancies were older (55 ± 11 vs. 46 ± 14 years; p = 0.020) and more frequently female (95.5 vs. 44.4%; p < 0.001). Metastasis was more prevalent in patients with hematological malignancies (38.9 vs. 13.6%; p = 0.011). Mean LVEF was 59.42 ± 6.36 and mean GLS was 20.26 ± 4.89. Prevalence of borderline (50-54%) and reduced LVEF (< 50%) was 4.7 and 3.8%, respectively. Abnormal GLS (< 18%) was identified in 10.4%. HFA-ICOS classified 14.7% of oncological and 10.2% of hematological malignancies in the high and very high-risk categories for developing CTR-CVT (p = 0.68).

A high risk for developing CTR-CVT was identified in 14.2% of our population. This risk was comparable among oncological and hematological malignancies.