Work

Cardiotoxicity of breast cancer drug treatments

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: • Some breast cancer therapies increase cardiotoxicity/cardiovascular complication risk. • Mechanisms include blockage of HER2 which has underlying cardioprotective properties. • This clinical trial systematic review summarises treatment cardiovascular effects. Breast cancer (BC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women worldwide. BC is regarded as a systemic disease. Consequently, the majority of BC patients undergo systemic therapy to reduce the risk of distant metastasis (DM) and associated mortality. Although systemic therapies improve patients’ outcome, they are associated with significant side effects, particularly cardiotoxicity and cardiovascular complications. Such side effects vary significantly in severity and duration. Cardiotoxicity may remain undetected for years post-treatment until the symptoms of heart failure (HF) present in the patient, which can reduce life expectancy, quality of life, and even lead to death. Therefore, it is vital to investigate the cardiotoxic and cardiovascular risks of BC treatment regimens to identify patients who would benefit most from cardiac monitoring. As it stands, cardiotoxicity is reported from individual studies or for selected drug therapies only. This review fulfils a gap in the literature by combining clinical studies of cardiotoxicity together from clinical trial data published on clinicaltrials.gov.uk.

Source: Translational Oncology

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranon.2025.102352