Cardioncology in Russia: Start-Off and Prospects

The progress in improving the survival of cancer patients in Russia, as well as throughout the world, means that in the next years it is going to be an increase in the number of disabled people who has achieved remission, or who faces the consequences of high-dose polychemotherapy and/or radiotherapy between courses of cancer treatment. Until recently, the two main socially significant medical problems in Russia, cancer and cardiac, have been rarely united into one. Publications on this topic appeared only in specialized cancer journals and were unknown by a wide range of cardiologists and internists, therefore the involvement of these specialists in the study of theoretical and practical aspects of the management of patients with malignant tumors was limited. Creation of the International Society of Cardioncology (ICOS) contributed to the development of an interest in this interdisciplinary field of modern medicine. However, even today cardiac problems of cancer patients in Russia mostly are limited to the cardiotoxicity studying, but, according to the position of the authors a great attention should be paid to the systemic reactions, including cardiovascular reactions of the organism to the tumor, as well as to the therapeutic issues and cardiac rehabilitation of cancer patients.