Cardiotoxicity of Cancer Treatments: Focus on Anthracycline Cardiomyopathy

Significant progress has been made in developing new treatments and refining the use of preexisting ones against cancer. Their successful use and the longer survival of cancer patients have been associated with reports of new cardiotoxicities and the better characterization of the previously known cardiac complications. Immunotherapies with monoclonal antibodies against specific cancer-promoting genes, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, and immune checkpoint inhibitors have been developed to fight cancer cells, but they can also show off-target effects on the heart. Some of these cardiotoxicities are thought to be due to nonspecific immune activation and inflammatory damage. Unlike immunotherapy-associated cardiotoxicities which are relatively new entities, there is extensive literature on anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy. Here, we provide a brief overview of the cardiotoxicities of immunotherapies for the purpose of distinguishing them from anthracycline cardiomyopathy. This is especially relevant as the expansion of oncological treatments presents greater diagnostic challenges in determining the cause of cardiac dysfunction in cancer survivors with a history of multiple cancer treatments including anthracyclines and immunotherapies administered concurrently or serially over time. We then provide a focused review of the mechanisms proposed to underlie the development of anthracycline cardiomyopathy based on experimental data mostly in mouse models. Insights into its pathogenesis may stimulate the development of new strategies to identify patients who are susceptible to anthracycline cardiomyopathy while permitting low cardiac risk patients to receive optimal treatment for their cancer. Graphic Abstract: A graphic abstract is available for this article.