1050
C
ontinual advances in antineoplastic therapies have pro-
duced better cancer outcomes with 13.7 million cancer
survivors in the United States in 2013
1
. However, a significant
number of survivors may develop cardiac disease as a result
of cancer treatment, whether chemotherapy, radiation, or a
combination of both.
2
Although radiation can cause significant
heart disease
3
both alone and with chemotherapy, this review
will only address cardiomyopathy induced by chemotherapy
agents, especially anthracyclines, commonly used to treat
pediatric and adult cancers. Whereas anthracyclines remain
the most common cause of chemotherapy-induced cardiomy-
opathy (CCMP), recently developed targeted therapies can also
cause cardiac dysfunction.
4–6
Newer drugs that target survival
pathways in cancer cells, such as the HER-2 (human epidermal
growth factor 2) and vascular endothelial growth factor inhibi-
tors, have been directly implicated in left ventricular (LV) sys-
tolic dysfunction
7,8
through off-target effects. Because cancer
and heart cells share many of the same survival pathways, it is
likely that newer targeted therapies will continue to cause off-
target impairment of cardiomyocyte survival and heart failure
(HF).
9
However, whereas LV dysfunction associated with tar-
geted therapies seems reversible,
10
anthracyclines remain the
only agents that seem capable to cause end-stage HF.
11
In this review, we critically appraise the data available to
support the use of advanced HF therapies in this patients with
CCMP and end-stage HF. Specifically, we review treatments
indicated for American College of Cardiology/American
Heart Association stages C-D HF, including implantable car-
diac defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT),
mechanical circulatory support devices, and orthotopic heart
transplantation (OHT).
Epidemiology
Herein defined as cardiomyopathy caused by anthracy-
cline damage with or without exposure to other cardiotoxic
agents,
12
CCMP has been described in 1% to 5% of cancer
survivors
13,14
and arguably portends the worst survival among
cardiomyopathies.
15
Unlike any other cause of HF, CCMP is
completely iatrogenic and predictably caused by escalating
doses of anthracyclines. At cumulative doses of <400 mg/m
2
,
the incidence of HF is 0.14% but increases to 5%, 26%, and
48% at 400, 550, and 700 mg/m
2
, respectively
16,17
. Factors that
potentiate CCMP are age extremes (<4 years or >65 years),
radiation, female sex, pre-existing cardiac diseases, hyperten-
sion, liver disease, exposure to cyclophosphamide, and whole-
body hyperthermia.
18,19
Consequently, the 2 groups of survivors most susceptible
to CCMP are those with cancers commonly treated with
anthracyclines: children and adults with hematologic malig-
nancies and women with breast cancer. For example, among
607 children treated with doxorubicin, 2.8% to 5% devel-
oped HF after 6 to 15 years,
20
and 3% of patients treated for
Hodgkin lymphoma developed HF after 11 years of follow-
up
21
. Furthermore, a sibling-controlled study from the child-
hood cancer survivor registry showed that childhood survivors
of hematologic malignancies were at 6× likelier to develop
HF than their siblings and that the cumulative risk persisted
>30 years after diagnosis.
12
Similarly, among 4000 women
followed up >18 years after breast cancer treatment with che-
motherapy and radiation, 382 (8.7%) developed HF
22
. Finally,
in a retrospective analysis of the pivotal trastuzumab trials,
HF developed in 40 (28%) of 143 patients who received
combination chemotherapy (trastuzumab, anthracycline, and
cyclophosphamide), 27 (67%) of whom had New York Heart
Association (NYHA) class III or IV HF.
8,23
However, the exact contribution of CCMP to the estimated
150 000 to 250 000 patients with advanced HF in the United
States in 2013 is not known.
24
Analyses of the largest registries
of patients with advanced HF, the United Network of Organ
Sharing, and the Interagency Registry of Mechanically Assisted
Circulatory Support (INTERMACS), found that patients with
CCMP accounted for 0.8% to 2.5% of all OHT recipients
25,26
and 0.5% of those implanted with mechanical circulatory sup-
port devices.
27
Therefore, extrapolating from large databases of
highly selected patients, the prevalence of end-stage HF from
CCMP is between 0.5% and 2.5%. These numbers likely repre-
sent a gross underestimation because many patients with CCMP
neither have access nor are eligible for advanced therapies.
Demographics
Large databases have unveiled unique characteristics of
patients with CCMP treated with advanced therapies. They
(Circ Heart Fail. 2014;7:1050-1058.)
© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.
Circ Heart Fail is available at http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org DOI: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.114.001292
Received May 5, 2014; accepted July 7, 2014.
From the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation Center and Onco-Cardiology Program, Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, University
Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH.
Correspondence to Guilherme H. Oliveira, MD, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, 11100 Euclid Ave, Lakeside 3012, Cleveland, OH 44106.
E-mail guilherme.oliveira@uhhospitals.org
Advanced Heart Failure Therapies for Patients
With Chemotherapy-Induced Cardiomyopathy
Guilherme H. Oliveira, MD; Marwan Y. Qattan, MD; Sadeer Al-Kindi, MD; Soon J. Park, MD
Advances in Heart Failure
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