Skip to main content
CONVERGENCE Q45The Convergence Q45 Mission

7 minute read

What Is Cardio-Oncology, and Why Does It Exist?

What is cardio-oncology?

Cardio-oncology is the field that cares for the heart before, during, and after cancer treatment. Several effective cancer therapies carry cardiovascular risk, and more people now survive cancer long enough for that risk to matter. Cardio-oncology exists so that a life saved from cancer is not later lost to a preventable heart problem.

Why the field emerged

Survival improved. That success created a second question: what happens to the heart of a survivor over the following decades.

What the work looks like

Baseline assessment, risk stratification, imaging and biomarker surveillance during treatment, management of blood pressure and other risk factors, and long term survivorship follow up in partnership with oncology.

The breath underneath the specialty

The field is, at its center, about preserved life. It insists that finishing treatment is not the whole goal. The whole goal is a life that continues, breathing, with capacity for what comes next.