Heart health after cancer treatment
What treatment may mean for your heart.
What is going on
Some cancer treatments can affect the heart and blood vessels. This includes certain chemotherapy drug classes, radiation to the chest, and some targeted or hormonal therapies.
Risk is not the same for everyone. It depends on which treatment was given, how much, when, and on other health conditions such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.
Many people never hear the term cardio-oncology, but this is what it means: paying attention to the heart across the years after cancer treatment.
What tends to help
- Home blood pressure readings recorded over time
- Regular aerobic activity as tolerated
- Keeping a written list of treatments received, with dates
- Bringing that list to every new clinician
Questions worth asking
- Which of my treatments are known to affect the heart?
- Was any imaging of my heart done before or during treatment?
- What blood pressure and cholesterol numbers should I aim for?
- Who is responsible for following my heart: oncology, primary care, or cardiology?
Who usually owns this
- Cardiology or cardio-oncology
- Primary care
- Oncology follow-up
Contact a clinician promptly
- Chest pain or pressure
- Shortness of breath lying flat or waking you at night
- New swelling in the legs, fainting, or a persistently racing heart
This page cannot tell you whether your cancer has returned, and it does not adjust any medicine. Anything sudden or severe belongs with emergency services.
Where this comes from
- AHA scientific statements on cardio-oncologyHigh confidence
- ESC cardio-oncology guidelineHigh confidence
Last reviewed 2026-08-10. Next scheduled review 2027-02-10. Where oncology, cardiology, and general medicine differ, this page says so rather than picking a side.