ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025 addresses cancer treatment’s cardiovascular risks, offering guidelines for prevention, early diagnosis, and management to reduce CVD in cancer patients

Surge in cancer patients with cardiovascular side effects due to cancer treatment. Doctors and experts urge to include heart and cardiovascular health in the patient’s cancer treatment plan.
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is going to conduct a conference on cardio-oncology to highlight the overlap of 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 (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Heart-related side effects of cancer treatment must be addressed as early as possible

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Cardiotoxicity Risks in Cancer Treatments

Previous research from prospective registries published in the European Heart Journal estimates 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% 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 anti-cancer 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.

Guidelines to Prevent Heart Risks from Cancer Therapy

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 that 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 as 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.

Shields to Prevent Cardiovascular Diseases

“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), and 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.”

Populations needing special consideration, 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 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.”

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.

Reference:

1. Heart-related side effects of cancer treatment must be addressed as early as possible – (https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/heart-related-side-effects-of-cancer-treatment-must-be-addressed-as-early-as-pos#:~:text=However%2C%20experts%20in%20cardio%2Doncology,ensure%20the%20best%20possible%20outcomes.)

Source-Eurekalert