Multimodality imaging in cardio-oncology: the added value of CMR and CCTA

Abstract

During the last 30 years, we have assisted to a great implementation in anticancer treatment with a subsequent increase of cancer survivors and decreased mortality. This has led to an ongoing interest about the possible therapy-related side-effects and their management to better guide patients therapy and surveillance in the chronic and long-term setting. As a consequence cardio-oncology was born, involving several different specialties, among which radiology plays a relevant role. Till the end of August 2022, when European Society of Cardiology (ESC) developed the first guidelines on cardio-oncology, no general indications existed to guide diagnosis and treatment of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT). They defined multimodality imaging role in primary and secondary prevention strategies, cancer treatment surveillance and early CTR-CVT identification and management. Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) has acquired a central role in coronary assessment, as far as coronary artery disease (CAD) exclusion is concerned; but on the side of this well-known application, it also started to be considered in left ventricular function evaluation, interstitial fibrosis quantification and cardiac perfusion studies. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), instead, has been acknowledged as the gold standard alternative to trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) poor acoustic window in quantification of heart function and strain modifications, as well as pre- and post-contrast tissue characterization by means of T1-T2 mapping, early Gadolinium enhancement (EGE), late Gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and extracellular volume (ECV) evaluation. Our review is intended to provide a focus on the actual role of CMR and CCTA in the setting of a better understanding of cardiotoxicity and to draw some possible future directions of cardiac imaging in this field, starting from the recently published ESC guidelines.