24/04/2025
Surviving cancer is a major victory, but what about your heart health after treatment? 🫀
A large study (Cardinale et al., 2015) tracking over 2,600 cancer patients treated with anthracycline chemotherapy found that 98% of heart problems occurred within the first year after treatment. Early detection helped many improve, with some fully recovering. 💪
This study used the standard heart function measure at the time—the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Today, tools like Global Longitudinal Strain (GLS) can detect issues earlier.
The 2022 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Cardio-Oncology guidelines recommend all patients who’ve had anthracycline therapy to have an echocardiogram within the first year post therapy.
A recent paper (Forbes et al., 2025) examined follow-up care for patients (single centre). It found that many patients lacked timely echocardiograms (whether referred to a survivorship clinic or not) during the first year post therapy.
The takeaway:
If you’ve had anthracycline therapy, make sure heart health is part of the conversation with your care team; seeing whether you’ve had, or should have, an echocardiogram or other cardio-oncology evaluations. Catching problems early allows for prompt intervention.🫀✨
References:
- Cardinale D., Colombo A., Bacchiani G., et al. (2015). Early detection of anthracycline cardiotoxicity and improvement with heart failure therapy. Circulation, 131(22), 1981–1988.
- Forbes Z., Dunmall T., Tey A., Culligan D., Fedele P.L. (2025). Survivorship clinic attendance improves completion but not timeliness of cardiac surveillance post-anthracyclines. Cardio-Oncology, 11(1), 22.
- Picture from: https://www.philips.com.au/healthcare/clinical-article/automated-strain-measurements
📌 Disclaimer: This post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Individual treatment decisions should always be made in consultation with qualified healthcare professionals who can evaluate each patient’s unique medical needs. Please speak with your healthcare provider for personalised advice.
