Valvular Heart Disease

Valvular heart diseases (VHD) may be observed in patients with cancer for several reasons, including preexisting valve lesions, radiotherapy, infective endocarditis, and secondary to left ventricle (LV) dysfunction. Over the years, the incidence of cardiovascular events has increased in these patients, especially in younger survivors who do not have traditional risk factors and are treated with thoracic radiotherapy for certain malignancies, such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma and breast cancer. It has been known since the 1960s that valve dysfunction can be caused by cancer therapy, both with radiation and more recently chemotherapy. Due to the latency of the valve dysfunction presentation, the diagnosis is late and more often incidental, and most of the studies exploring the effects of radiation and chemotherapy on heart valves have been retrospective and observational.