Revascularisation in Patients with Cancer: A Review

The emerging field of cardio-oncology has grown considerably over the past two decades. While the issue of myocardial cardiotoxicity has received the most attention, it is now recognised that cardio-oncology encompasses the full spectrum of cardiovascular disease, which includes invasive therapy as part of management. Historically, these were seldom considered in cancer patients, due to their perceived poor prognosis and high risk of complications. However, advances in diagnosis and therapy have improved the prognosis and lifespan of patients with cancer, rendering a generally conservative approach no longer appropriate. Despite this, their management remains challenging, perhaps more so than in any other subset of patients. As patients with cancer become increasingly more common in catheterisation laboratories, we review the issue of revascularisation in this patient subset to address three major issues: available evidence, appropriateness of revascularisation, and specific factors to consider when performing revascularisation.