What is cardio-oncology?

Some cancer treatments may cause damage to your heart or put you at risk for heart disease. At the Ross Heart Hospital, our goal is to lessen or eliminate that risk as you complete your cancer treatments.

The multidisciplinary cardio-oncology team includes specialists from Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) and the Ohio State Heart and Vascular Center who come together to provide care for heart failure through services like electrophysiology and cardiac imaging.

Our approach

By working together, our physicians at the OSUCCC – James and the Ross Heart Hospital created a holistic approach to caring for patients with cancer before, during and after treatments that improves the patient’s quality of life.

Our program combines exercise, calming activities and other therapies to address heart-related issues that sometimes result from cancer treatments. The cardio therapies are personalized for each patient, and promote improved physical and mental health.

The key to a patient’s success is collaboration among oncologists, cardiologists and patients.

Research

Over the past two decades, powerful immunotherapy drugs that work to alter a patient’s immune system have proven effective in fighting cancer. During the same period, however, doctors have seen an increase in patients experiencing cardiovascular problems.

Ibrutinib is a targeted oral therapy that has transformed the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia so that this disease can be more effectively managed. The drug has also shown tremendous promise for many other cancers. However, some patients treated with this revolutionary therapy develop cardiovascular side effects, including abnormal and dangerous heart rhythms.

Daniel Addison, MD, co-director of the Cardio-Oncology program at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, is leading a study called Early Detection and Mechanisms of Novel Cancer Immunotherapy Associated With Cardio-Toxicity. The study will identify people who are at higher risk for heart problems related to ibrutinib. It will also use heart imaging and blood tests to identify early markers of heart damage and develop treatment strategies for patients with signs of heart damage related to ibrutinib use.

The goal of the clinical trial is to develop a customizable strategy in treating patients and possibly apply these techniques to other new cancer immunotherapy drugs.