Treatment-Related Cardiovascular Toxicity in Long-Term Survivors of Testicular Cancer

Abstract

Testicular cancer (TC) is the most common malignancy in young men. Considering increasing incidence, exceptionally high cure rate, as well as long life expectancy, assessment of long term toxicity in TC survivors is of great importance. In the last decades a major effort has been made in order to reduce toxicity of treatment, while maintaining its high effectiveness. Actual knowledge on treatment toxicity is based on outdated treatment modalities. Hopefully, modern treatment modalities could reduce toxicity, but there is no firm confirmation for that at the moment, as data dealing with late sequelae of modern treatment of TC  are not available yet due to the short period of observation. In the present review, we focus on the life-threatening cardiovascular toxicity in TC survivors, as a major complication of platinum-based chemotherapy, mediastinal radiotherapy and even subdiaphragmatic radiotherapy, with overview of underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.