What is cardiac toxicity?
Cardiac toxicity is damage to the muscles of the heart caused by some chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer. Most of the cardiac complications associated with chemotherapy occur during or shortly after the completion of therapy. However, some of these problems can persist and become chronic. In addition, some chemotherapy drugs can cause heart damage that is only apparent months to years after the completion of cancer treatment. Heart problems can be mild and only detectable by sophisticated tests, such as determining the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), which is the amount of blood, expressed as a percentage, that the left ventricle of the heart pumps out each time your heart contracts. They can also be severe, resulting in congestive heart failure (CHF). Damage to the heart from cancer chemotherapy can be so severe that the patient may require a heart transplant.
