Chemoradiotherapy-Associated Cardiovascular Toxicity: A Need of Cardio-Oncology to Improve

Cancers and cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death among humans. Given the increasing armamentarium of cancer treatments with a potential for cardiovascular toxicity, cytotoxic and molecularly targeted drugs, radiation-associated cardiovascular toxicity is an increasing problem both for both the oncologist and cardiologist, which suggests a need for cardio-oncology (or onco-cardiology) to minimize the knowledge gap between these fields and to determine the best strategies to help recognize, detect, treat, prevent, and predict these adverse cardiovascular events. In this review, we will briefly discuss the cytotoxic anti-neoplastic and targeted drugs and various radiation-induced cardiovascular diseases with their potential mechanisms, and strategies for treatment, monitoring, and detection.