[Cardiac toxicity of 5-fluorouracil]

A 67 year-old patient receives 5-fluorouracil for vocal chord cancer. During the perfusion, atypical angina pain occurs, accompanied with offset of ST above the baseline in standard leads and in V4 through V6. The pain subsides spontaneously in 45 minutes. These ECG alterations are followed 48 hours later by diffuse inverted T waves with lengthened QT. Cardiac ultrasonography and isotopic angiography do not show any abnormality of the left ventricular function, but myocardial tomoscintigraphy with labelled thallium show a lower hypofixation on exertion. The cardiac toxicity of 5-fluorouracil is in frequent. It is usually believed that it involves a coronary spasm, as suggested by the ECG tracing in the reported cases. The incident, which may be painful or painless, may result in a myocardial infarction or even sudden death during the perfusion. Therefore, it is advisable to discontinue the treatment as soon as an angina-type pain occurs.