Reducing the cardiotoxicity of the anthracyclines

Most patients are not at risk for anthracycline-associated cardiotoxicity, since the cancer usually develops resistance before a dangerously high cumulative dose can be given. However, select patients may benefit from continued therapy. The physician's goal is to continue to treat these patients without risking drug-related cardiomyopathy. A simple maneuver is to switch from bolus administration to a weekly low-dose or continuous-infusion schedule. Pretreatment with ICRF-187, a new cardioprotective agent currently under investigation, may prove highly useful in the near future. Perhaps most important, the physician must be able to spot the early signs of drug-related cardiac injury. This can be accomplished with radionuclide ventriculography to determine both resting and exercise ejection fractions. Patients shown to be at high risk can then be withdrawn from the drug or further monitored with endomyocardial biopsy and right heart catheterization.