Heart risks in cancer therapy
Heart risks in cancer therapy
Women with advanced breast cancer being treated with herceptin face an increased risk of heart damage, according to a new US study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. About 28% of women taking Herceptin for at least a year suffer some heart damage. However experts believe this risk is acceptable because most damage can be repaired.
About 20-25% of the 12,000 Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer each year have the aggressive HER-2 positive breast cancer which is treated by Herceptin.
The US Food and Drug Administration warned in 2003 that Herceptin could result in congestive heart failure leading to the inability to pump enough blood through the body, or dysfunction in the heart’s ventricle chamber which pumps blood out of the heart.
The US research said the cardiac side effects could be successfully treated ( although there was one cardiac related death in the patients studied). “If the cardiac side effects of Herceptin treatment can be managed, the drug is safe to use.”
