Key result
HRV analysis offers a non-invasive, cost-effective method to identify autonomic dysfunction in supportive cancer care.
Why the study?
Despite the recognized importance of heart rate variability to cancer care, HRV monitoring and analysis are not standard clinical practice.
This review advocates for the inclusion of heart rate variability monitoring as a standard of care in supportive cancer care guidelines to identify autonomic dysfunction.
Supports inclusion of HRV monitoring as standard in supportive cancer care; reinforces prior studies by addressing lack of widespread implementation.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in the time interval between consecutive heartbeats, is variable for each individual and higher or lower HRV is not always better. Despite the importance of HRV to cancer care, HRV monitoring and analysis are not standard clinical practice. In this article, we present the clinical utility of widely known recommendations for improving HRV, highlight their benefits and outline how these can provide an efficient, non-invasive and cost-effective method for identifying autonomic dysfunction through HRV. Considered together, this article can inform policy on the importance of HRV measurements and evaluation as a standard of care in supportive care guidelines.
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Beeler et al. (2026) studied this question. Heart rate variability analysis offers a non-invasive, cost-effective method to identify autonomic dysfunction and should be incorporated into supportive cancer care guidelines.
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