Only a third of older breast cancer patients saw a cardiologist within 90 days of developing heart problems, according to a new study.
Results of the study were presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2014 meeting in Baltimore.
The researchers used a Medicare-linked database to identify women older than 65 who were diagnosed between 2000 and 2009 with stage I-III breast cancer and received cancer treatments that previously had been linked to heart problems. Lead author Dr. Jersey Chen, of Kaiser Permanente in Rockville, MD, and colleagues tracked which patients developed cardiomyopathy or heart failure.
Of the 8,400 breast cancer patients treated with either anthracyclines or trastuzumab, 1,028 (12%) developed heart problems within three years. But only 345 (34%) of these women saw a cardiologist within 90 days of their heart diagnosis.
Chen's group then mined data from 2006 to 2011 to track patients' treatments. The team found that 60% of those who saw a cardiologist received angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, compared with 44% of those who didn't see a cardiologist. For beta-blockers, the figures were 40% and 24%, respectively.
"Many cancer patients who develop heart failure or cardiomyopathy aren't getting the necessary medications, regardless of whether they're seen by cardiologists," Chen said in a statement released by AHA. "So there is work to be done to improve care for all women with cardiac complications after cancer therapy."
