With the advent of new therapies, cancer patients are surviving longer than ever before — but the incidence of side-effect chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy (CHIC), or weakness of the heart muscle, is increasing. Research published in JAMA has shown that treating CHIC with commercially available cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) delivered through a surgically implanted defibrillator or pacemaker can significantly improve patient outcomes.
“Chemotherapies are systemic toxins,” said lead author Jagmeet P. Singh, MD, DPhil, associate chief of cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). “Patients take them to kill the cancer cells but they can also affect different organs and tissues in the body.”
Anthracyclines and other drugs used to treat breast cancer and lymphomas are particularly likely to have a negative effect on the heart muscle and result in reduced heart function in approximately 9 percent of patients treated with them. Sometimes, along with the negative effect on the heart muscle, the chemotherapy may also impact the electrical system in the heart, resulting in an abnormal contraction pattern. When contractions in the heart’s right and left sides aren’t synchronized, said Singh, “the heart begins to progressively fail because it becomes less and less efficient.”
