Practical guidance for echocardiography for cancer therapeutics-related cardiac dysfunction

The prognosis of patients with cancer has improved due to an early diagnosis of cancer and advances in cancer treatment. There are emerging reports on cardiotoxicity in cancer treatment and on cardiovascular disease in cancer patients, from which cardiovascular disease has been recognized as a common cause of death among cancer survivors. This situation has led to the need for a medical system in which oncologists and cardiologists work together to treat patients. With the growing importance of onco-cardiology, the role of echocardiography in cancer care is rapidly expanding, but at present, the practice of echocardiography in clinical settings varies from institution to institution, and is empirical with no established systematic guidance. In view of these circumstances, we thought that brief guidance for clinical application was necessary and have therefore developed this guidance, although evidence in this field is still insufficient.