Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Jan 26, 2021; 13(1): 28-37
Published online Jan 26, 2021. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v13.i1.28
Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity: A case report and review of literature
Esther G Chong, Eric H Lee, Reena Sail, Laura Denham, Gayathri Nagaraj, Chung-Tsen Hsueh
Esther G Chong, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92350, United States
Eric H Lee, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Compassionate Cancer Care Medical Group, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, United States
Reena Sail, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center, San Diego, CA 92121, United States
Laura Denham, Department of Pathology and Human Anatomy, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92350, United States
Gayathri Nagaraj, Chung-Tsen Hsueh, Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92350, United States
Author contributions: Lee EH and Hsueh CT performed clinical examination and collected data; Denham L reviewed pathologic specimen; Lee EH, Chong EG, Sail R, Nagaraj G and Hsueh CT designed the report, analyzed the data and wrote the paper; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the surviving spouse of deceased patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chung-Tsen Hsueh, MD, PhD, Professor, Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University, 11175 Campus Street, CSP 11015, Loma Linda, CA 92350, United States. chsueh@llu.edu
Received: August 30, 2020
Peer-review started: August 30, 2020
First decision: October 23, 2020
Revised: November 7, 2020
Accepted: December 22, 2020
Article in press: December 22, 2020
Published online: January 26, 2021
Processing time: 137 Days and 10.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Anthracyclines may exert a direct toxic effect on cardiac myocytes, precipitating symptomatic heart failure. The case presented demonstrates an example of acute heart failure in a well-compensated young adult who did not at first glance warrant greater than routine cardiac surveillance during doxorubicin treatment course. Utilization of cardioprotective agents and cardiac strain markers such as troponin and brain natriuretic peptide may help to prevent and identify cardiac dysfunction in asymptomatic patients. Prevention of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and cardiovascular toxicities of other anti-cancer therapy requires multidisciplinary approaches such as modification of cardiovascular risk factors, active management of comorbidities, and pharmacologic therapy in selected patients.