Cardiotoxicity of Antineoplastic Agents: What Is the Present and Future Role for Imaging?

As antineoplastic treatment options expand at an increasing rate, both traditional and novel agents continue to be limited by their cardiotoxic effects. While functional decline becomes clinically apparent at late states of toxicity, little is known about early stages during which treatment or prevention may still be an option. Several imaging modalities, including echocardiography, multiple gated acquisition, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging have the ability to identify cardiac effects before they produce clinical symptoms. Here we discuss the current and future role of cardiac imaging in the assessment of cardiotoxicity of antineoplastic agents.