Exercise echocardiography in asymptomatic survivors of childhood cancer treated with anthracyclines: A prospective follow-up study

Abstract

Background. Exercise echocardiography reveals abnormalities in asymptomatic childhood cancer survivors who previously have been treated with anthracyclines. We determined the added value of monitoring childhood cancer survivors with exercise echocardiography compared to monitoring with resting echocardiography alone to predict anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. Secondary aims were to evaluate change in resting cardiac function over 10 years and to determine risk factors for late cardiotoxicity. Procedure. We invited a cohort of 110 originally asymptomatic anthracycline-treated childhood cancer survivors, who had undergone cardiac tests including exercise echocardiography 10.5 years earlie..