Doxorubicin and heart damage
Doxorubicin aka Adriamycin causes heart damage.
According to the University Medical Center at the University
of Groningen in the Netherlands researchers, the damage to
the heart from some cancer drugs is a well known fact but
this is the first long-term study to track the effects of cancer
drugs on the heart that might occur years later.
As a resut of this study, researchers recommend that all
patients treated with drugs known as anthracyclines have
life-long heart function monitoring. They emphasis, even
with the study findings, that doxorubicin is a highly effective
cancer treatment. In addition, today's cancer patients tend
to receive lower doses of these cancer drugs, and
cardioprotective drugs, such as dexrazoxane, were not
available to cancer patients in the past.
More:
European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and cancer aol.