Multi-Target Drugs for Blood Cancer in the Elderly: Implications of Damage and Repair in the Cardiovascular Toxicity

Hematological malignancies in the elderly with cardiovascular comorbidities are difficult to treat due to the increased cardiovascular toxicity of anticancer therapies. The difficulty of balancing efficacy and tolerability in this group of patients often leads the clinician to suspend or reduce the dosage of drugs, facilitating the relapse of the disease. The identification of cardiac and vascular progenitor cells in the elderly as target cells may allow the development of new strategies for cardiovascular protection from anticancer drugs. In this commentary, we will focus on cardiovascular toxicity due to some very effective target therapies that have seen the greatest increase for the treatment of hematological malignancies relevant to the elderly—tyrosine kinase inhibitors and proteasome inhibitors.