Diastolic dysfunction can precede systolic dysfunction on MUGA in cancer patients receiving trastuzumab-based therapy.

Background: Trastuzumab (T) and anthracycline (A)-based chemotherapy is considered the standard of care in human epidermal growth factor receptor-2+ overexpressing breast cancer, but requires monitoring for known cardiotoxicity using left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) every 3-4 months during treatment. It is not conclusively established whether diastolic dysfunction (DD) precedes LVEF decrease in patients developing trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity (TIC).

Objective: The aim was to elucidate whether DD precedes LVEF decrease in trastuzumab-treated patients being monitored with radionuclide multigated acquisition for TIC.