Cardiac adverse events associated with antineoplastic treatment in elderly cancer patients

Abstract

Cardiac toxicities are potentially serious, even life-threatening side effects of antineoplastic treatment.Several commonly used cytotoxic and molecularly targeted agents are associated with risk of theseevents. Elderly cancer compared to younger are more susceptible to cardiac toxic effects. On the otherhand, not advanced age but pre-existing cardiac function and comorbidities are the most important riskfactors. Therefore it is essential to screen elderly patients for risk factors before initiating treatment, useagents with optimal therapeutic index, modify treatment schedule (weekly use or prolonging the infusiontime of anthracyclines) and perform rigorous monitoring of cardiac function.