Arginine-Nitric Oxide Metabolites and Cardiac Dysfunction in Patients With Breast Cancer

Oxidative/nitrosative stress and endothelial dysfunction are hypothesized to be central to cancer therapeutics-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD). However, the relationship between circulating arginine-nitric oxide (NO) metabolites and CTRCD remains unstudied.

This study sought to examine the relationship between arginine-NO metabolites and CTRCD in a prospective cohort of 170 breast cancer patients treated with doxorubicin with or without trastuzumab.

Plasma levels of arginine, citrulline, ornithine, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), and N-monomethylarginine (MMA) were quantified at baseline, 1 month, and 2 months after doxorubicin initiation. Determinants of baseline biomarker levels were identified using multivariable linear regression, and Cox regression defined the association between baseline levels and 1- or 2-month biomarker changes and CTRCD rate in 139 participants with quantitated echocardiograms at all time points.

Age, hypertension, body mass index, and African-American race were independently associated with ≥1 of baseline citrulline, ADMA, SDMA, and MMA levels. Decreases in arginine and citrulline and increases in ADMA were observed at 1 and 2 months (all p < 0.05). Overall, 32 participants experienced CTRCD over a maximum follow-up of 5.4 years. Hazard ratios for ADMA and MMA at 2 months were 3.33 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12 to 9.96) and 2.70 (95% CI: 1.35 to 5.41), respectively, and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.64 to 0.97) for arginine at 1 month.

In breast cancer patients undergoing doxorubicin therapy, early alterations in arginine-NO metabolite levels occurred, and early biomarker changes were associated with a greater CTRCD rate. Our findings highlight the potential mechanistic and translational relevance of this pathway to CTRCD.