Growing numbers of cancer patients and survivors find themselves facing an additional health challenge: cardiovascular disease (CVD), often triggered or exacerbated by their cancer treatments. In fact, one third of newly-approved cancer drugs are known to have cardiac or vascular side effects. For some patients, these side effects are so severe that they have to interrupt their cancer treatments. Meanwhile some patients only start experiencing CVD symptoms years after their treatment has finished, making timely detection difficult.
Joining forces to address cardiotoxicity in cancer care
COMPASS aims to improve the cardiovascular health of cancer patients and survivors. It will do this by generating a patient-centred clinical pathway to help predict cardiotoxicity risk for cancer patients and survivors; boost the early detection of CVDs; tailor personalised cancer and CVD treatments; and improve the long-term monitoring and management of CVDs in patients and survivors.
‘King’s College London is looking forward to providing academic leadership and scientific coordination to COMPASS, harnessing the consortium’s expertise across cardiology, oncology, molecular science, big data and AI to address the growing challenge of cardiotoxicity in cancer care,’ said project coordinator Steve Archibald of King’s College London. ‘We aim to promote integrated care models to drive widespread adoption across healthcare systems.’
On early detection, the project plans to develop a validated panel of molecular biomarkers to pick up cardiotoxicity issues earlier in drug development. They will also work on advanced imaging technologies to improve the detection of cardiac damage early on. COMPASS is also targeting AI-driven predictive models that could integrate diverse data (e.g. from imaging, biomarkers, and clinical records) to provide personalised information on cardiovascular risks. The project will integrate wearables into the system, to allow continuous, real-time monitoring of patients and rapid detection of any potential cardiovascular problems.
The project’s outputs will be tested via clinical studies involving both cancer patients and survivors at different stages of care.
An AI-powered clinical decision support system
All of this will feed into an AI-powered clinical decision support system that will help clinicians balance cancer treatment efficacy with cardiotoxicity risk. The project will also generate standardised, sustainable cardio-oncology care pathways that will improve coordination between oncology and cardiology teams across Europe.
Ultimately, COMPASS hopes to advance cardio-oncology research and improve the lives of both people living with cancer and survivors.
‘GE HealthCare is proud to lead the industrial contribution to COMPASS, joining forces with leading academic and clinical experts to enhance cardio-oncology care,’ said the project’s industry lead, Eigil Samset of GE HealthCare. ‘This collaboration aims to develop an AI-powered, patient-centred clinical pathway that enables earlier cardiotoxicity detection, safer cancer treatment, and better long-term cardiovascular outcomes for cancer patients.’