Troponin in hematologic oncology

In cardiology practice, the standard method of evaluating patients with suspected ischemic myocardial injury is an assay that measures the release of troponin into the bloodstream. In hematologic oncology practice, troponin has been investigated extensively as a measure of myocardial injury after therapy with radiation and anthracyclines and after myeloablative therapies with stem cell replacement. This review describes the current literature on use of troponin for monitoring early and late complications of systemic chemotherapy. The use of troponin to assess the value of cardioprotective agents (used for prevention of chemotherapy-induced myocardial injury) also is reviewed. Because a number of nonmalignant hematologic disorders such as hypereosinophilic syndrome, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis can affect the heart, the use of the troponin in assessing these patients' prognoses is also covered.