Cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity: Basic mechanisms and potential cardioprotective therapies

Abstract

Mechanisms of cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity include a combination of on-target effects on signaling cascades essential to both cancer progression and normal cardiac function and off-target effects due to nonselective actions. Effective therapies to treat cancer and cancer therapy- induced cardiotoxicity must either take advantage of tissuespecific differences or affect the downstream mediators of toxicity, and there are active studies under way to develop new targeted therapies.140,141 Other effective therapies for cardioprotection include typical pharmacologic therapies used in cardiovascular disease that promote increased cardiac reserve and reverse remodeling under the stress of cancer therapy. Most of the data regarding mechanisms of cardiotoxicity due to cancer therapy have been obtained from animal models of this disease process; therefore, further studies to improve our understanding of the relevance of these pathways in humans are necessary. © 2014 The Authors.