Prevention of Cardiotoxicities With Traditional and Novel Chemotherapeutic Agents

This review will discuss strategies to prevent cardiotoxicity associated with chemotherapeutics. Forty years ago, investigators identified dose-dependent cardiotoxicity related to anthracycline-based regimens. Over recent decades, the development of more selective, mechanism-based chemotherapeutics has been associated with both on-target and off-target adverse cardiovascular sequelae.

Strategies to prevent or attenuate cardiotoxicities include limitation of anthracycline dose, appropriate patient selection, referral/access to cardio-oncology programs, early recognition of cardiac side effects, active cardio-surveillance, cardio-protective medical therapy, treatment-specific concerns, and follow-up. The importance of accurate diagnosis of cardiotoxicity is important as false-positive testing may result in inappropriate holding or stopping potentially life-saving chemotherapy. Data to support use of cardio-protective medical therapy to prevent chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity is modest at best, limited by marginal effect size, small patient numbers, and short follow-up. The rapid growth in cardio-oncology clinics may facilitate larger multi-center randomized controlled trials in this area.