While heart failure is an uncommon complication of breast cancer treatment, the risk may be higher in patients treated with certain types of chemotherapy and lower in younger patients, according to a study published Aug. 6 in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

The study, part of a special "Imaging in Cardio-Oncology" focus issue, concludes that cardiac monitoring should be a higher priority for high-risk patients.

"We must remember that while cardiac monitoring is recommended in different guidelines, such recommendations are not based on category 1 data, and the timing recommended and the intervals of testing are rather arbitrary," the authors write. "In examining the rate of both cardiac monitoring and cardiotoxicity we could begin to address the controversial issue of whether cardiac monitoring is warranted in young breast cancer patients."

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