Nonetheless, Abdel-Qadir et al believe that “[t]hese findings support the development of randomized controlled trials of statins for prevention of cardiotoxicity.”

Anthracycline exposure in young adults who previously received cancer treatment is associated with a significantly elevated risk for heart failure.

Research has confirmed that congestive heart failure is significantly more common in people given an anthracycline to treat breast cancer or lymphoma than among those given other types of chemotherapy, even after adjusting for confounding factors.

Incidental irradiation of the sinoatrial node during lung cancer chemoradiotherapy may be associated with an increased risk for atrial fibrillation and death, research suggests.

People with cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors have a significantly higher risk for major adverse cardiovascular events than their unexposed counterparts or the general population, indicate real-world findings.

High baseline levels of troponin T may increase the risk for major adverse cardiovascular events among advanced renal cell carcinoma patients receiving combination treatment with avelumab plus axitinib, suggest data from the JAVELIN Renal 101 trial.

Cardioprotective pharmacologic therapy may be effective against anthracycline-related subclinical heart damage in women with nonmetastatic breast cancer, with bisoprolol potentially offering greater benefits than ramipril, interim SAFE study data suggest.

Concurrent use of the ACE inhibitor lisinopril could help reduce the risk for left ventricular ejection fraction decline in women receiving trastuzumab and anthracyclines for HER2-positive early breast cancer, suggests US research.

He also questioned whether “LVEF assessment by echocardiography [is] enough to assess cardiac safety,” as LVEF decline is a late effect of cardiotoxicity, and recommended the evaluation of global longitudinal strain to identify early subclinical LV dysfunction and the use of cardiac biomarkers in future trials. medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Ltd. © 2021 Springer Healthcare Ltd, part of the Springer Nature Group ESMO Breast Cancer Virtual Congress 2021; 5–8 May

An analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System has provided detailed insight into cardiovascular adverse events associated with different classes of androgen deprivation therapies.

A review of data from the osimertinib clinical trials program has not identified a causal relationship between the use of the EGFR–tyrosine kinase inhibitor and cardiotoxicity among patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Therefore, drugs that block signaling via these receptors – such as the third-generation, nonselective, beta blocker carvedilol currently used for the management of cardiovascular disorders and chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity – are being investigated as anticancer therapeutics, they say.

People receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for lung cancer or malignant melanoma have a significantly increased risk for cardiovascular events, observational study data show.

Of note, significantly more patients in the non-anthracycline group completed a full year of trastuzumab treatment than in the anthracycline group (97 vs 89%), which van der Voort attributed to a higher rate of cardiotoxicity with the latter regimen.

The data suggest “that cardiotoxicity may not represent a cumulative dose-dependent phenomenon”, they write, noting that if pre-existing cardiovascular disease is a risk factor, it may be possible in the future to “predict which individuals are at high risk for untoward outcomes.”

Read more on these guidelines here

Certain patient groups generally considered at low risk for developing myocarditis may need careful monitoring if they are taking immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer, say researchers.

The focus this month is on early and late treatment effects in patients with breast cancer, including effects on endometrial cancer risk, cardiotoxicity, and skin toxicity.