Cancer treatments whether new or traditional, can damage the heart. The occurrence of cardiac toxicity often necessitates the suspension of cancer treatment with negative consequences from the oncological and cardiological point of view.
 

For this reason, patients treated here at the IEO undergo a careful and constant monitoring of the health of their heart. Our Cardioncology Unity, a separate and dedicated unit, has developed an innovative approach based on the evaluation of cardiac biomarkers, combined with targeted preventive treatment, which has proven extremely effective in preventing cardiotoxicity in more than 3800 patients receiving potentially toxic cancer treatments  for the heart at our institution.
 

Insight into the topic of anthracycline cardiotoxicity

Anthracycline cardiotoxicity is a serious complication of cancer treatment that could weigh negatively on cancer patient prognosis independently of the underlying problems the tumor itself presents. Cardiotoxicity is still considered to be irreversible due to its lack of responsiveness to cardiological therapy. A prospective study of 2.625 patients conducted at IEO calls into question this outdated belief and demonstrates that if cardiotoxicity is diagnosed early and cardiological treatment is initiated promptly, a complete recovery of cardiac function is possible.

Read the article published by Circulation "Early Detection of anthracycline cardiotoxicity and Improvement With Heart Failure Therapy" .

Read Dr. Cardinale's interview on OpenHeart.