Curie Brief
Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
NewsImmune checkpoint inhibitors — the drugs revolutionizing cancer treatment — come with a serious cardiac catch. A retrospective study of over 30,000 patients found that cancer patients on these therapies had a 40% higher risk of hospitalization for major cardiovascular events, including heart failure, heart attack, and stroke, compared to those on standard chemotherapy. Experts say it's time to make heart health a routine part of cancer care.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed cancer treatment — turning once-fatal diagnoses into manageable conditions. But a large new study is sounding the alarm on a serious side effect that may be flying under the radar: major cardiovascular events.
A retrospective analysis of more than 30,000 patients found that those treated with ICIs had a 40% higher risk of hospitalization for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) — including heart failure, myocardial infarction, and stroke — compared to patients who received standard frontline chemotherapy. Researchers believe chronic immune-driven inflammation may be the culprit, essentially turning the immune system's cancer-fighting power against the heart and blood vessels.
Adding to the concern, patients who received ICIs alongside radiation therapy faced an even steeper cardiovascular risk. Among individual drugs, nivolumab carried the highest MACE risk (RR = 2.34), though researchers caution those results may reflect the cancer types and co-treatments involved rather than the drug itself.
As more cancer patients survive longer thanks to ICIs, cardiovascular complications are becoming a growing concern. Experts are calling on oncologists to integrate proactive cardiac monitoring into standard cancer care workflows — not as an afterthought, but as a core part of treatment planning.
