Childhood Cancer Cardiac Imaging: Past, Present, and Future

Background

The frequency of cardiac imaging in cancer survivors is a current focus of controversy because over screening adds burden to the healthcare system and patient, but under screening may miss potentially treatable complications. An additional challenge is the technology for measuring cardiac function is changing.

Project Goal

Louis will be working to achieve the goal to explore if changing heart imaging techniques have increased the incidence of cardiac function abnormalities in children who received chemotherapy or radiation with potential side effects on the heart. They will be reviewing the heart imaging reports of the survivors of childhood cancer at risk for heart toxicity for abnormal function. This project will provide insights into the limitations of current heart imaging techniques as well as the potential value of different methods being introduced.