Purpose of review: Cardio-oncology is a growing multi-disciplinary field that focuses on treating and preventing cardiovascular complications in cancer survivors and patients. This review summarizes the current clinical needs and system-based approaches to target barriers of care.
Recent findings: The field of cardio-oncology has experienced significant growth in recent years, and an increasing number of programs have been developed across the nation to provide improved and multi-disciplinary care to this patient population. Despite this burgeoning growth, practitioners in the field continue to face important challenges which include lack of administrative and departmental support, funding limitations, and gaps in the areas of mentoring, education, and research. Despite continued growth, cardio-oncology providers continue to face a multitude of challenges. Early inclusion of multi-disciplinary stakeholders, oncologists, cardiovascular team members, and administrative leadership provides an opportunity to collaborate and achieve unique patient care and health system benefits, such as prevention of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, and facilitates the delivery of optimal oncologic treatment.
Keywords: Cardio-oncology; Cardiovascular disease; Chemotherapy; Oncology; Radiation therapy; Targeted therapy.