Two professions against two killer-diseases: the rationale, organization, and initial experience of cardio-oncology service.

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CV) are the most common factor affecting prognosis in cancer survivors. Cardio-oncology (CO) services have developed to solve this issue. The paucity of outcomes regarding patient demographics and clinical findings prevails and the available data are limited to CO services evaluating patients undergoing only chemotherapy. Aims To show initial experiences of the CO service implemented in tertiary oncology center. Methods The CO service was designed to include two major domains: general CO and electrotherapy consultations. Patients referred to the CO service with a collection of baseline demographics, cancer type, the reason for referral, cardiac evaluation, and initial clinical outcomes were included in this observational study. Results All cancer patients referred to our CO service between March 2016 and December 2019 were included in the study. A total of 2762 (77% females) patients at the mean (SD) age of 62 (12) years were referred (63% on an out-patient basis) for general consultations. The most frequent diagnosis was breast cancer (66%). In 18% of patients, the reason of referral to the CO service was cancer treatment related CV complications. A total of 652 patients (515 patients with a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) qualified for radiotherapy (RT), 48 patients with CIEDs diagnosed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and 89 patients with CIED treated with cancer surgery) were evaluated by the CO-CIED team. During the total of 5,872 RT sessions, two harmful interactions and no other complications during MRI and surgery were recorded. Conclusions The CO-service established within the cancer center seems to be safe and feasible.