Anthracyclines are a class of chemotherapies effective in treating many forms of cancer, including leukemias, lymphomas and breast cancer. Anthracyclines — such as doxorubicin, frequently used against breast cancer — kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA. However, these effective chemotherapies also cause toxic effects in the heart in about ten per cent of patients that can eventually lead to heart failure, particularly in older patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Currently, physicians lack robust strategies to predict which patients are at risk for this anthracycline-associated heart damage — called cardiac toxicity, a decline in heart function that can lead to heart failure — or to detect it in its earliest stages.
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