The goal of adjuvant anti-cancer therapies is cure with limited or no side effects, in particular long-term side effects with negative impact on quality of life. In the palliative setting disease control, quality of life and overall survival are important end points. Partly due to improvements in treatment, the population of cancer survivors is large and growing. However, anti-cancer drug-related cardiotoxicity (ADRC) is the leading cause of treatment-associated mortality in cancer survivors. It is one of the most common post-treatment problems among 5- to 10-year survivors of adult cancer. This is particularly true for breast cancer, the most common cancer in women. The EACVI/HFA COT registry is designed for comprehensive data collection and evaluation of the current European practice in terms of diagnosis and management of ADRC in breast cancer patients. The COT registry will be carried out in two continuing phases, the pilot study phase involving 13 countries followed by the long-term registry in which all the 56 ESC countries will be invited to participate. With the COT registry, several critical information will be obtained: on predisposing factors for the development of ADRC, the rate of subclinical LV dysfunction and its transition to overt heart failure, the clinical impact and outcome of ADRC.
Keywords: biomarkers; breast cancer; cardiac toxicity; chemotherapy; left ventricular function.
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