In a new study, researchers have developed a technique to predict whether cancer patients receiving a common chemotherapy drug are likely to experience heart failure as a result.
The research was conducted by a team at Yale.
The chemotherapy drug, called doxorubicin, is used to treat a number of cancers, including breast and bladder cancers, lymphoma, and Kaposi’s sarcoma.
It is a powerful medication and in some cases, it severely damages the heart muscle.
But a new, non-invasive procedure may be able to help screen for early signs of impending heart failure in cancer patients taking doxorubicin.
In the study, the team tested the procedure in an animal model experiment.
The new method uses coronary CT angiography (CTA) to measure the diameter of epicardial coronary vessels, which help direct blood flow to the heart muscle.
The researchers conducted CTA imaging when the subject was at rest and again during pharmacological stress.
They then evaluated changes in the diameter of the coronary vessels; the normal dilation of vessels is impaired when there is vascular injury.
The team says this non-invasive imaging approach may be an early indicator of toxicity and could be used to modify chemotherapy or intervene with cardiac drugs to prevent irreversible cardiac injury.
One author of the study is Yale’s Dr. Albert Sinusas, a professor of medicine and radiology and biomedical imaging and biomedical engineering.
The study is published in JACC CardioOncology.
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