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A Study On Common Cancer Treatments Essay

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BACKGROUND Common cancer treatments such as anthracyclines and trastuzumab are associated with an increased risk of cardiotoxicity, which is responsible for significant mortality and morbidity in cancer survivors.[1, 2] Assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) has been, and continues to be the most widely used method for cardiotoxicity risk assessment prior to, surveillance during, and surveillance after administration of potentially cardiotoxic cancer treatment.[3] Since the 1970s,[4] multiple gated acquisition scanning (MUGA) has been the preferred imaging modality for baseline and serial assessment of LVEF for cardiotoxicity. There is concern that contemporary gamma cameras may not allow optimal patient positioning for LVEF assessments.[3] Thus, it is possible that contemporary MUGA in cancer patients may not provide accurate estimates of LVEFs. Inaccurate LVEF assessment may carry significant implications for the care of cancer patients receiving potentially cardiotoxic treatment since LVEFs play an important role in decisions to start, continue, hold or stop such treatment. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of LVEFs obtained by contemporary clinical MUGA in consecutive patients with cancer with reference LVEFs from cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), the gold standard technique for assessment of left ventricular volumes and systolic function.[5] METHODS Patients and data collection The study sample consisted of

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