[Anthracycline cardiotoxicity]

To provide specialists and general practitioners with a review of the more recent data about anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and diagnostic methods utilized to reveal it.

Reviewers identified studies concerning anthracycline cardiotoxicity, with special emphasis to those dealing with its pathogenesis and tools utilized for diagnosing it, by searching MEDLINE and reviewing references for retrieved articles.

Three different clinical patterns of cardiotoxicity were described: acute, chronic and late. Highly sensitive tests are necessary for evaluating, during the time, the cardiotoxic effects associated with anthracycline-based therapy and to predict the development of cardiac dysfunction. For this reason, endomyocardic biopsy and radionuclide-based angiocardiography are considered the "gold standard". However, the bidimensional echocardiography is the most commonly performed because of its high specificity and sensitivity combined with low costs.

The peer review of the most recent scientific literature clearly demonstrate that cardiotoxicity is an important complication of anthracycline-based therapy and that the cumulative dose greater than 550 mg/m2 is the main independent risk factor. For the evaluation of anthracycline-related cardiotoxicity, bidimensional echocardiography remains still the easier and faster method.