Modern cancer treatments have greatly improved survival, but they can sometimes harm the heart.
Certain chemotherapy drugs and other anticancer medicines may weaken the heart muscle, reducing its ability to pump blood. If heart damage becomes serious, doctors may have to delay, reduce, or stop cancer treatment.
Because of this challenge, researchers are searching for ways to protect the heart while allowing cancer therapy to continue safely.
A research team from Erasmus University Medical Center examined whether medicines commonly prescribed for heart failure could reduce this problem.
Rather than conducting a new clinical trial, the scientists reviewed and combined results from many previous studies in a large meta-analysis. Their work was presented at ESC Cardio-Oncology 2026.
The researchers analyzed 49 studies including 6,998 cancer patients. They focused on medicines recommended in European heart failure guidelines, including RAAS inhibitors, beta-blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, SGLT2 inhibitors, and statins.
The main outcome was left ventricular ejection fraction, which measures how effectively the heart pumps blood. Patients receiving RAAS inhibitors generally maintained better heart function than those receiving standard care.
Beta-blockers also offered protection, and combining the two treatments produced the strongest overall benefit. Improvements were also seen in global longitudinal strain, another sensitive measure of heart muscle performance.
Several other medicines showed encouraging results. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, SGLT2 inhibitors, and statins all appeared to improve heart function, although these conclusions were based on only a small number of studies.
More research is therefore needed before doctors can know exactly how these medicines should be used in cancer care.
The findings support current treatment guidelines and suggest that protecting the heart should become an important part of treating cancer patients who are at risk of heart damage.
Preserving heart function may help more people complete their planned cancer treatment while reducing future cardiovascular complications.
This study is important because it pooled evidence from thousands of patients, making the conclusions stronger than those from individual studies. However, many of the included studies were small and differed in design, so additional high-quality randomized clinical trials are still required.
Future research should especially examine newer heart medicines to determine whether they provide even greater protection. Overall, the results suggest that closer cooperation between cancer specialists and heart specialists could significantly improve patient care.
The findings were presented at ESC Cardio-Oncology 2026.
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Source: Erasmus University Medical Center.
