[Cardiovascular complications of cancer chemotherapy. The need for cardio-oncology.]

Traditional chemotherapic agents as antraciclines and radiumtherapy are known to be the cause of cardiovascular complications from many years. Nevertheless also recent drugs, which were initially considered effective only on cancer cells are now recognized to exert negative effects also on the cardiovascular system. The frequency and the entity of the effects are variable for each drug and depend from the clinical status of the patient. It is therefore necessary the creation of a team of oncologists and cardiologists for the prevention and therapy of cardiovascular complications.