Project Grant R21HL184224

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded the University of Texas at Austin $238,858 on September 1, 2026, under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) to develop personalized prediction models for HER2-induced cardiovascular adverse events in older women with breast cancer using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The award funds a cohort study using 2011–2022 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare data linked with American Community Survey data to identify high-risk patients and incorporate area-level healthcare infrastructure factors into cardiovascular risk assessment. The project addresses a critical clinical gap: approximately 25 percent of breast cancers are HER2-positive, and while HER2-targeted therapies such as trastuzumab improve survival, they carry substantial cardiotoxicity risk, particularly among older adults with pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Existing predictive models demonstrate suboptimal performance and inconsistency across patient populations due to exclusion of complex comorbidity profiles and area-level variables. The research aims to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among older women receiving HER2-targeted therapy by enabling more accurate treatment decisions.

Work is performed in Austin, Texas, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2028. This is an Assistance Type Project Grant, which supports discrete research projects rather than ongoing program activities or training.