The treatment based on athracyclines and trastuzumab may lead to heart failure in oncological setting. Assessment of the heart function is conducted using radiological examinations, especially echocardiography. Biochemical diagnostics enables to depict clinically silent cardiac dysfunction at an earlier stage. Biomarkers that showed to be the most promising in predicting the development of deterioration of systolic and/or diastolic function in course of chemotherapy are troponins and NT-pro-BNP. However, no cut-off point had been yet determined, especially in terms of cardiotoxicity induced by oncological therapy. Biomarkers serum level may be dependent on many conditions, mostly comorbidities, what makes the interpretation of the results difficult. Trials involving mikro RNA particles, which depict the molecular level of the pathological changes, also those involved in the development of cardiomyopathy, are underway.
Keywords: anthracyclines; biomarkers; cardiotoxicity; trastuzumab.
© 2016 MEDPRESS.