ESC cardio-oncology conference hits the ground running

The first ever ESC Cardio-Oncology conference was held in Florence, Italy, from 20 to 21 June 2025, organized and hosted by the Council of Cardio-Oncology of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) together with the ESC conference team. It was a success. A total of 878 delegates gathered from 74 countries, representing five continents. Almost 40% of them were under 40 years of age, and two-thirds were under 50, indicating a remarkable interest in cardio-oncology among younger doctors and healthcare professionals (HCPs). The scientific sessions were well attended, with many reaching ‘standing-room-only’ capacity. The scientific interaction and discussions were great and were fostered by a cocktail reception at the end of the first day of the conference. The ESC Cardio-Oncology conference programme consisted of 58 scientific sessions and 6 industry sessions. The opening lecture was given by Dr Daniela Cardinale, who contributed to the initial development of cardio-oncology in Italy and internationally and who has conducted seminal studies on cancer treatment-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT).1,2 Most other scientific sessions were organized in two parallel tracks: a general stream for all HCPs approaching cardio-oncology and an advanced stream for experts and those who wanted to learn about the most complicated aspects and latest scientific advances in the field. All major areas of cardio-oncology were covered, such as prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of CTR-CVT, management of cardiovascular disease in cancer patients and survivors, pre-clinical cardio-oncology, and reverse cardio-oncology. Two sessions, endorsed by the Italian cardiology (SIC and ANMCO) and oncology (AIOM) societies, were dedicated to special populations and comprehensive care in cardio-oncology. An update was also provided on the status of the RESILIENCE study, which is funded by the European Union.3 The European Heart Journal supported a session on the last advances in oncology and cardio-oncology, as well as a mentoring session together with JACC Cardio Oncology on how to build a research career in cardio-oncology. The last session was plenary and simulated the work of a guideline’s taskforce, inviting all the audience to participate as a virtual guidelines taskforce. After expert presentations on four controversial topics in cardio-oncology, the audience was invited to vote on whether each proposed guideline recommendation should be supported. If supported, they were then asked to determine the appropriate class of recommendation and level of evidence. The session was light-hearted at moments and much appreciated by the panel and the attendees. It is noteworthy that the majority of the taskforce voted to support inclusion of the four recommendations, but none of the recommendations could reach 75% taskforce agreement for either the class of recommendation or level of evidence. Frequently the audience was split, e.g. 10% class 1, 40% class IIa, 45% class IIb, and 5% do not include. It highlighted that, even for an educated and interested group, interpretation of the quality and strength of the same scientific data can be varied, and that achievement of consensus to generate guidelines can be challenging. The scientific activities were not limited to the lectures. 347 scientific abstracts, reporting exciting studies and complex clinical cases, were selected and presented as oral communications or posters at ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025. Three presenters competed for the clinical Young Investigator Award (YIA), and another three for the basic/translational YIA. The winners were Dr Stephen Foulkes (Edmonton, Canada) with the clinical abstract entitled ‘Mechanisms of reduced exercise capacity in breast cancer survivors compared with patients with HFpEF and controls: insights from comprehensive cardiopulmonary exercise testing’, and Dr Enrique Ortega Sollero (Madrid, Spain) with the basic/translational abstract entitled ‘Anti-mmu-mir-721 as a therapeutic target for immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis’. Congratulations to the YIA winners and to all the finalists! The chairs, speakers, discussants, and abstract presenters were cardiologists, cardiovascular HCPs, oncologists, radiation oncologists, haematologists, specialized nurses, general practitioners, and cardiovascular and oncology/haematology scientists. This heterogenous composition well represents the interdisciplinarity of cardio-oncology and was reflected by joint sessions between the ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the European Haematology Association (EHA), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), and the International Cardio-Oncology Society (ICOS). The success of the ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025 conference is the latest in a series of major achievements made by the ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology (https://www.escardio.org/Councils/council-of-cardio-oncology/) since its creation in 2018.4 The ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology has promoted cardio-oncology science and practice through consensus documents5–7 and, most importantly, through the unprecedented publication of the ESC Guidelines on cardio-oncology in 2022.8 In the effort to harmonize and strengthen cardio-oncology research, the council is now working on the definition of possible standards for pre-clinical research and clinical data collection in cardio-oncology, including both cardiovascular and oncology clinical trials. The principles of cardio-oncology training have been outlined in the ESC Core Curriculum for cardio-oncology9 and the tools to reach full cardio-oncology competency are now being made available. The ESC has just launched the Cardio-Oncology Level 1 online training, illustrating the basics of cardio-oncology through five modules with on-demand short videos, and will open the Cardio-Oncology certification programme soon. Those who attended the ESC Cardio-Oncology conference will be well prepared to sit the certification exam. An ESC Cardio-Oncology postgraduate course in collaboration with ESMO is also planned for 2026–2027. The second ESC Cardio-Oncology conference will be held in Vienna, Austria, on 19–20 June 2026, where further advances in this field will be presented and new education and networking opportunities will be offered. Like the sunlight of summer reflecting off the architectural and artistic monuments of Florence, a bright future is shining on cardio-oncology within the ESC. P.A. received speaker and/or advisory board fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi-Sankyo, Janssen, MSD, and Gossamer Bio. The Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Genova received fees from Bayer for scientific consultancy by P.A. A.R.L. received speaker, advisory board or consultancy fees and/or research grants from Janssens-Cilag Ltd, Astellas Pharma, Pfizer, Novartis, Servier, Astra Zeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Amgen, Takeda, Roche, Clinigen Group, Eli Lily, Eisai Ltd, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Akcea Therapeutics, Myocardial Solutions, iOWNA Health, Heartfelt Technologies Ltd, Arma Biosciences, and EPICLIFE. T.L.F. received speaker and/or advisory board fees from Philips, Myocardial solutions, Janssen-Cilag, Astra Zeneca, Accord, Pfizer/BMS, and Lilly. P.A. was supported by PNRR-MAD-2022-12376632 (CUP C63C22001360006), funded by European Union—Next Generation EU—NRRP M6C2—Investment 2.1 Enhancement and strengthening of biomedical research in the NHS, and by the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 2025-2027). A.R.L. was supported by the Fondation Leducq Network of Excellence in Cardio-Oncology. The Royal Brompton Cardio-Oncology Centre of Excellence was supported by The Big Heart Foundation.

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