Imaging Study Evaluates Valvular Heart Disease and Interventions in Cancer Patients 

December 11, 2025—The European Society of Cardiology announced findings from a study showing that valvular heart disease as identified through cardiovascular imaging is common in cancer patients and that interventions significantly improved survival in these patients. Maximilian Autherith, MD, present the study at EACVI 2025, the congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, a branch of the ESC.

According to ESC, the study sought to determine the prevalence of valvular heart disease in patients with cancer; describe the frequency of valve interventions; and evaluate the impact of interventions on survival. The observational cohort study included 10,353 adult patients with a confirmed cancer diagnosis who had undergone transthoracic echocardiography within 12 months at a tertiary referral center.

The findings were summarized in the ESC press release as follows:

• 7.2% of patients had severe valvular heart disease, most commonly tricuspid regurgitation (3.7%); mitral regurgitation (2.6%); and aortic stenosis (2.2%)
• Severe valvular heart disease was found to be an independent predictor of increased mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.25-1.71) and cardiovascular death (adjusted HR, 2.62; 95% CI, 2.00-3.43)
• Among those patients with severe valvular heart disease, 21.5% underwent a surgical or transcatheter intervention
• A valvular intervention was independently associated with improved survival compared to no valvular intervention, resulting in a 72% mortality reduction (adjusted HR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.09-0.87) after a median follow-up of 23 months

“Severe valvular heart disease was prevalent in this selected population of cancer patients who underwent echocardiography,” commented Dr. Autherith in the ESC press release. “Only a small proportion of patients underwent interventions to treat valvular heart disease, but when they did, the impact on survival was considerable. Our findings highlight the need to refer cancer patients for regular cardiovascular monitoring and also suggest that interventions for valvular heart disease do not need to be withheld in this population. The next steps include further analysis of different administered cancer treatments and performed interventions.”