The number of cancer survivors in the United States has grown as treatments have become more effective at battling the disease. But chemotherapy and radiation cancer treatments can also sometimes damage patients’ hearts, leading to cardiovascular complications.

Last year, Cleveland Clinic Florida launched a new cardio-oncology program that combines disciplines and aims to avoid heart damage in patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for cancer treatment. The program targets cancer patients who will undergo chemotherapy or radiation to the chest area as a result of a cancer diagnosis and those who already have heart disease or cardiovascular risk factors and are about to start cancer treatment.

The hospital says its cardiaconcology team has specific protocols for working with oncologists to manage treatment options that minimize heart damage that could include blood vessel damage and heart arrhythmia. The goal, the hospital says, is to detect and treat any complications as early as possible in the course of cancer treatment.

 

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