Monitoring of cardiac damage in cancer patients treated with cardiotoxic drugs

Abstract

In recent years, thanks to advances in early diagnosis and especially to substantial improvements in therapy, there has been a significant increase in the survival of cancer patients. Almost all cancers can be cured today, and survival of patients over 5-10 years is a tangible goal in many types of cancer. Cardiovascular complications are a growing problem in clinical practice that may frustrate modern oncological outcome of therapy. For this reason, a careful evaluation of the patient risk profile through a close collaboration among physicians and careful monitoring of patients are necessary for a successful treatment. Among the most common and dangerous complications of many drugs used in cancer chemotherapy, there is the development of myocardial damage and heart failure. The present review focuses on the type of cancer drugs that may induce cardiac dysfunction and provides the clinical cardiologist monitoring schemes applicable in daily clinical practice aimed at early detection of cardiac damage.