Heart Failure in Breast Cancer Survivors: Focus on Early Detection and Novel Biomarkers

AbstractPurpose of Review Breast cancer survival rate has greatly improved in the last two decades due to the emergence of next-generation anti-cancer agents. However, cardiotoxicity remains a significant adverse effect arising from traditional and emerging chemotherapies as well as targeted therapies for breast cancer patients. In this review, we will discuss cardiotoxicities of both traditional and emerging therapies for breast cancer. We will discuss current practices to detect cardiotoxicity of these therapies with the focus on new and emerging biomarkers. We will then focus on ‘omics approaches, especially the use of epigenetics to discover novel biomarkers and therapeutics to mitigate cardiotoxicity.Recent FindingsSignificant cardiotoxicities of conventional chemotherapies remain and new and unpredictable new forms of cardiac and/or vascular toxicity emerge with the surge in novel and targeted therapies. Yet, there is no clear guidance on detection of cardiotoxicity, except for significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction, and even then, there is no uniform definition of what constitutes cardiotoxicity. The gold standard for detection of cardiotoxicity involves a serial echocardiography in conjunction with blood-based biomarkers to detect early subclinical cardiac dysfunction. However, the ability of these tests to detect early disease remains limited and not all forms of toxicity are detectable with these modalities.SummaryThere is an unprecedented need to di...
Source: Current Heart Failure Reports - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research