There has been a rapid growth in the field of cardio-oncology over the last several years, including an emerging focus on this topic from several organizations including the ACC Council on Cardio-Oncology. In this video, , from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, discusses the state of education in the growing field.
Following is a transcript of her remarks:
The state of education for cardio-oncologists is a very important issue in that field. Cardio-oncology is a relatively new field, and it stems from the fact that the population is aging, there are more cardiac or cardiovascular diseases in people, and there is also more cancer. Also, cancer diagnosis and treatment has increased -- improved, I should say. The survivors -- there are more survivors. They live far longer, and they experience more side effects of their cancer therapy and also more cardiovascular events.
Hence, the development of cardio-oncology. But cardio-oncology is a homegrown specialty, if you will, and there is no formal training that has been put into place for cardio-oncologists. However, it's a very specific subspecialty of cardiology, with patients who are very susceptible to different types of side effects and complications of therapy and who often have multiple comorbidities. There is a big effort from several organizations including the ACC Council on Cardio-Oncology, including ICOS [the International Cardio-Oncology Society], which is an international organization of cardio-oncologists, including many of the cardio-oncologists involved in this field and to develop a formal education curriculum that would include both education in oncology and education in cardiology to take care of those difficult patients.
There is also a part of the training, which as a director of the echo lab I feel strongly about, which is the education in cardiovascular imaging, which is very important for this specialty. I think one thing that characterizes cardio-oncology is the team aspect, as not only the cardiologists and the oncologists must be very involved, but also other specialties -- the cardiovascular imager, the surgeons, maybe the neurologist, the nephrologist, and the radiotherapist, of course, in those difficult patients.