A Cochrane review included 11 studies with a total of 6083 subjects; 7 studies (n=803) examined different anthracycline infusion durations and 4 studies (n=5280) examined different anthracycline peak doses. The majority of patients in these studies were adults with different solid tumours. A lower rate of clinical heart failure with an infusion duration of 6 hours or longer was found as compared to a shorter infusion duration (RR = 0.27; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.81, 5 studies, 557 patients). For different anthracycline peak doses 2 studies addressing a doxorubicin peak dose of less than 60 mg/m2 versus 60 mg/m2 or more, 1 study addressing a liposomal doxorubicin peak dose of 25 mg/m2 versus 50 mg/m2 and 1 study addressing an epirubicin peak dose of 83 mg/m2 versus 110 mg/m2 were identified. In none of the studies a significant difference in the occurrence of clinical heart failure was identified.