Cancer survivors face potential heart damage that can emerge up to 20 years after completing treatment, the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging warned on World Heart Day.
Specialists refer to these cardiac complications as cardiotoxicity, a condition that can manifest during active oncology treatment, within the first year after therapy ends, or as a late-onset issue appearing one to two decades later.
The situation is particularly critical for individuals diagnosed and treated for cancer during childhood or adolescence. Dr Francisco Sebastián Palacid, coordinator of the Cardiology Working Group at the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and a physician at the Clinical University Hospital of Valladolid, said such patients require cardiac follow-up spanning decades rather than just during their active cancer treatment.
Medical experts identified several patient groups facing heightened risk. These include women with breast cancer who received treatment with anthracyclines and trastuzumab, lymphoma patients who underwent anthracycline therapy or chest radiation, and survivors of childhood leukemia or sarcoma.
High-risk treatments and long-term cardiac monitoring
Cardiotoxicity refers to damage inflicted on the heart muscle or vascular system by certain anti-cancer drugs and therapeutic radiation. While chemotherapy agents like anthracyclines and targeted monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab are key components of oncology regimens, their biological mechanism can affect cardiac muscle cells and blood vessels over time.
World Heart Day is marked internationally to raise awareness of cardiovascular health and encourage early prevention strategies. Because cardiotoxic effects can remain silent for extended periods, specialists emphasize that overcoming cancer should not mark the end of medical oversight.
Maintaining long-term cardiovascular surveillance allows doctors to identify early cardiac alterations before they progress into severe heart conditions. To detect these early changes, medical teams rely on specialized diagnostic tools such as isotopic ventriculography, also known as a MUGA scan.
Isotopic ventriculography is a nuclear medicine technique that evaluates cardiac function before, during, and after cancer therapy. Nuclear medicine utilizes small amounts of radioactive tracers to visualize and measure organ function. A primary advantage of a MUGA scan is its high degree of reproducibility, which enables specialists to compare heart function measurements over long periods with high precision and intervene before serious cardiac complications develop.
Regional disparities in specialized healthcare access
Despite the importance of long-term cardiac monitoring, the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging highlighted significant regional disparities across Spain regarding access to nuclear medicine tests. Availability varies widely among Spain's autonomous communities and even between individual hospitals within the same region.
Healthcare administration in Spain is decentralized across its 17 autonomous regions, which manage regional public health services independently. As a result of these structural differences in equipment distribution, some cancer survivors are required to travel to other medical centers or neighboring regions to receive the specialized cardiac follow-up they need.
Medical specialists recommend that cancer survivors who received potentially cardiotoxic therapies maintain regular cardiovascular follow-up long after being discharged by their oncologists. Early detection through routine cardiac imaging allows clinicians to take proactive steps and reduce long-term heart damage.
