Heart failure in chemotherapy-related cardiomyopathy: Can exercise make a difference?

Statins for Attenuating Cardiotoxicity in Patients Receiving Anthracyclines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Anthracycline chemotherapy causes cardiotoxicity, and the evidence regarding the benefit of concomitant statin use in reducing it remains uncertain. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies using statins and anthracyclines by searching PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov from inception until April 10, 2023. Our analysis included 3 observational studies and 4 RCTs, including the STOP-CA trial released in ACC23. Statin prescription significantly reduced cardiotoxicity in cancer patients receiving anthracycline chemotherapy (OR 0.46, 95% CI: 0.33-0.63; I2: 0%). However, no significant difference was observed in the decline of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) from baseline (MD 4.15, 95% CI: -0.69 to 8.99, I2: 97%). These findings demonstrate the protective effect of concomitant statin prescription.

Risk and Management of Patients with Cancer and Heart Disease

Cancer and cardiovascular disease are two of the leading causes of global mortality and morbidity. Medical research has generated powerful lifesaving treatments for patients with cancer; however, such treatments may sometimes be at the expense of the patient's myocardium, leading to heart failure. Anti-cancer drugs, including anthracyclines, can result in deleterious cardiac effects, significantly impacting patients' functional capacity, mental well-being, and quality of life. Recognizing this, recent international guidelines and expert papers published recommendations on risk stratification and care delivery, including that of cardio-oncology services. This review will summarize key evidence with a focus on anthracycline therapy, providing clinical guidance for the non-oncology professional caring for a patient with cancer and heart failure.

Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and senescence

Cancer continues to place a heavy burden on healthcare systems around the world. Although cancer survivorship continues to improve, cardiotoxicity leading to cardiomyopathy and heart failure as a consequence of cancer therapy is rising, and yesterday's cancer survivors are fast becoming today's heart failure patients. Although the mechanisms driving cardiotoxicity are complex, cellular senescence is gaining attention as a major contributor to chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity and, therefore, may also represent a novel therapeutic target to prevent this disease. Cellular senescence is a well-recognized response to clinical doses of chemotherapies, including anthracyclines, and is defined by cell cycle exit, phenotypic alterations which include mitochondrial dysfunction, and the expression of the pro-senescent, pro-fibrotic, and pro-inflammatory senescence-associated phenotype. Senescence has an established involvement in promoting myocardial remodeling during aging, and studies have demonstrated that the elimination of senescence can attenuate the pathophysiology of several cardiovascular diseases. Most recently, pharmacology-mediated elimination of senescence, using a class of drugs termed senolytics, has been demonstrated to prevent myocardial dysfunction in preclinical models of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. In this review, we will discuss the evidence that anthracycline-induced senescence causes the long-term cardiotoxicity of anticancer chemotherapies, consider how the senescent phenotype may promote myocardial dysfunction, and examine the exciting possibility that targeting senescence may prove a therapeutic strategy to prevent or even reverse chemotherapy-induced cardiac dysfunction.

Late consequences of chemotherapy on left ventricular function in women with breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death among breast cancer survivors. Several chemotherapy drugs may cause cardiovascular toxicity. Our study aimed to assess the late effects of chemotherapy on left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function in a group of female breast cancer survivors.

METHODS

Our study was a case-control study consisted of 60 breast cancer survivors who had undergone chemotherapy for more than 5 years and a control group of 49 women without breast cancer. All patients underwent echocardiography and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS), pulse-Doppler early transmitral peak flow velocity (E wave), early diastolic (e'), and left atrial (LA) diameter were calculated.

RESULTS

The mean LVEF and GLS were reduced in chemotherapy group (51.63±7.93% vs. 55.37±3.50%, P=0.002 and -17.99±3.27% vs. -19.25±2.27%, P=0.025). Also, the chemotherapy group had a larger left ventricular end-systolic internal diameter than the control group (1.74±0.44cm/m² vs. 1.58±0.22cm/m², P= 0.011). Logistic regression analysis showed among the different cardiovascular risk factors, chemotherapy had an association with decreasing LVEF.

CONCLUSION

Breast cancer survivors might have an excess risk of having subclinical LV dysfunction over time. These findings present the potential benefits of echocardiographic assessment in breast cancer survivors.

Senescence and senolytics in cardiovascular disease: Promise and potential pitfalls

Ageing is the biggest risk factor for impaired cardiovascular health, with cardiovascular disease being the cause of death in 40 % of individuals over 65 years old. Ageing is associated with an increased prevalence of atherosclerosis, coronary artery stenosis and subsequent myocardial infarction, thoracic aortic aneurysm, valvular heart disease and heart failure. An accumulation of senescence and increased inflammation, caused by the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, have been implicated in the aetiology and progression of these age-associated diseases. Recently it has been demonstrated that compounds targeting components of anti-apoptotic pathways expressed by senescent cells can preferentially induce senescence cells to apoptosis and have been termed senolytics. In this review, we discuss the evidence demonstrating that senescence contributes to cardiovascular disease, with a particular focus on studies that indicate the promise of senotherapy. Based on these data we suggest novel indications for senolytics as a treatment of cardiovascular diseases which have yet to be studied in the context of senotherapy. Finally, while the potential benefits are encouraging, several complications may result from senolytic treatment. We, therefore, consider these challenges in the context of the cardiovascular system.

Ventricular peak emptying and filling rates measured by gated tomographic radionuclide angiography using a cadmium-zinc-telluride SPECT camera in chemotherapy-naïve cancer patients

INTRODUCTION

Radionuclide angiography is widely used for left ventricular function assessment. This study establishes normative data and inter-study repeatability on peak ventricular filling and emptying rates obtained by a cadmium-zinc-telluride SPECT camera.

METHOD

Cancer patients (N = 764) without diabetes or cardiovascular diseases referred for baseline assessment of cardiac function were included. Repeatability was assessed in 46 patients where two separate acquisitions were performed. Left and right ventricular emptying rates (LPER, RPER) and filling rates (LPFR, RPFR) were obtained and whenever possible also atrial filling rates (PFRa).

RESULTS

Filling rates were higher in women than men. Emptying rates tended to increase with age, whereas filling rates and the E/A ratio decreased. One patient was excluded from the repeatability analysis due to an unexplained high intra-observer variation. Intraclass correlation coefficients for LPER, RPER, LPFR, and RPFR were 0.99, 0.94, 0.99, and 0.84, no proportional biases were detected.

CONCLUSION

Reference values and relations to age and gender in chemotherapy-naïve cancer patients without cardiopulmonary disease are presented. The CZT camera provides reproducible estimates of peak emptying and filling rates.

Mechanisms Involved in Cardioprotection Induced by Physical Exercise

Significance: Regular exercise training can reduce myocardial damage caused by acute ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Exercise can reproduce the phenomenon of ischemic preconditioning, due to the capacity of brief periods of ischemia to reduce myocardial damage caused by acute I/R. In addition, exercise may also activate the multiple kinase cascade responsible for cardioprotection even in the absence of ischemia. Recent Advances: Animal and human studies highlighted the fact that, besides to reduce risk factors related to cardiovascular disease, the beneficial effects of exercise are also due to its ability to induce conditioning of the heart. Exercise behaves as a physiological stress that triggers beneficial adaptive cellular responses, inducing a protective phenotype in the heart. The factors contributing to the exercise-induced heart preconditioning include stimulation of the anti-radical defense system and nitric oxide production, opioids, myokines, and adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) dependent potassium channels. They appear to be also involved in the protective effect exerted by exercise against cardiotoxicity related to chemotherapy. Critical Issues and Future Directions: Although several experimental evidences on the protective effect of exercise have been obtained, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have not yet been fully clarified. Further studies are warranted to define precise exercise prescriptions in patients at risk of myocardial infarction or undergoing chemotherapy.

The Preventive role of Regular Physical Training in Ventricular Remodeling, Serum Cardiac Markers, and Exercise Performance Changes in Breast Cancer in Women Undergoing Trastuzumab Therapy-An REH-HER Study

Cardiotoxicity is known as a severe clinical problem in oncological practice that reduces the options for cancer therapy. Physical exercise is recognized as a well-established protective measure for many heart and cancer diseases. In our study, we hypothesized that supervised and moderate-intensity exercise training would prevent heart failure and its consequences induced by trastuzumab therapy. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of physical training on ventricular remodeling, serum cardiac markers, and exercise performance in women with human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2+) breast cancer (BC) undergoing trastuzumab therapy. This was a prospective, randomized, clinical controlled trial. Forty-six BC women were randomized into either an intervention group (IG) or a control group (CG). An exercise program (IG) was performed after 3–6 months of trastuzumab therapy at 5 d/week (to 80% maximum heart rate (HRmax)) for 9 weeks. We then evaluated their cardiac function using echocardiography, a 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and plasma parameters (C-reactive protein (CRP), myoglobin (MYO), interleukin-6 (IL-6), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and creatine kinase (CK)). After the physical training program, we did not observe any significant changes in the left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF) and 6MWT (p > 0.05) in the IG compared to the CG (decrease p < 0.05). The differences in the blood parameters were not significant (p < 0.05). To conclude, moderate-intensity exercise training prevented a decrease in the LVEF and physical capacity during trastuzumab therapy in HER2+ BC. Further research is needed to validate our results.

The Role of AMPK Activation for Cardioprotection in Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity

Doxorubicin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of a range of cancers, but despite its success in improving cancer survival rates, doxorubicin is cardiotoxic and can lead to congestive heart failure. Therapeutic options for this patient group are limited to standard heart failure medications with the only drug specific for doxorubicin cardiotoxicity to reach FDA approval being dexrazoxane, an iron-chelating agent targeting oxidative stress. However, dexrazoxane has failed to live up to its expectations from preclinical studies while also bringing up concerns about its safety. Despite decades of research, the molecular mechanisms of doxorubicin cardiotoxicity are still poorly understood and oxidative stress is no longer considered to be the sole evil. Mitochondrial impairment, increased apoptosis, dysregulated autophagy and increased fibrosis have also been shown to be crucial players in doxorubicin cardiotoxicity. These cellular processes are all linked by one highly conserved intracellular kinase: adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK regulates mitochondrial biogenesis via PGC1α signalling, increases oxidative mitochondrial metabolism, decreases apoptosis through inhibition of mTOR signalling, increases autophagy through ULK1 and decreases fibrosis through inhibition of TGFβ signalling. AMPK therefore sits at the control point of many mechanisms shown to be involved in doxorubicin cardiotoxicity and cardiac AMPK signalling itself has been shown to be impaired by doxorubicin. In this review, we introduce different agents known to activate AMPK (metformin, statins, resveratrol, thiazolidinediones, AICAR, specific AMPK activators) as well as exercise and dietary restriction, and we discuss the existing evidence for their potential role in cardioprotection from doxorubicin cardiotoxicity.

Exercise Interventions in Cardio-oncology Populations: A Scoping Review of the Literature

BACKGROUND

Cardiac toxicity in patients with cancer results from treatment-related damage to the cardiovascular system by chemotherapy, targeted agents, or thoracic radiation. Cardio-oncology patients with co-occurring cancer and cardiovascular disease frequently experience fatigue. Exercise is recommended in clinical guidelines to manage fatigue during or after cancer treatment.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to conduct a scoping review of the exercise randomized clinical trials in cardio-oncology patients, focusing on the components and effects of exercise interventions on patient cardiovascular and fatigue outcomes.

METHODS

A scoping review methodological framework was deemed appropriate and used. Key words for search included "cancer," "oncology," "cardio-oncology," "heart failure," "physical activity," and "exercise." Search involved systematic searches of large databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Cochrane Review, and CINAHL) and hand searches of reference lists, key journals, webpages, and experts in the field using snowballing techniques.

RESULTS

There were 12 randomized clinical trials included in this review. Study characteristics, accordance of exercise protocols with recommendations, specific exercise training components, and cardiovascular and fatigue outcomes were mapped.

CONCLUSIONS

Recommendations for addressing the gaps included focusing on non-breast-cancer patients with cardiac toxicity risks, developing precision-based prescriptions based on various medical and physiological characteristics, and adding fatigue symptom experience as an outcome variable.

Effects of physical exercise on outcomes of cardiac (dys)function in women with breast cancer undergoing anthracycline or trastuzumab treatment: study protocol for a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Cardiotoxicity is a known complication and one of the most adverse effects from the use of conventional treatments such as anthracyclines and trastuzumab in breast cancer (BC) care. This phenomenon has been associated with the restriction of therapeutic options and the increase of cardiovascular complications, which may compromise the survival of patients. Implementation of preventive strategies is an important approach for the management of this issue. Physical exercise has been proposed as a non-pharmacological strategy to counteracting cardiotoxicity. The aim of this protocol is to describe the rationale and methods for a systematic review of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have analysed the effects of physical exercise on outcomes of cardiac (dys)function in women with BC undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment containing anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

This is a protocol for a systematic review reported according to the PRISMA-P 2015 checklist. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) will be included. The literature will be screened on MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ISI Web of Science and Scopus. The risk of bias of the included RCTs will be assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. The primary outcomes will be systolic function (left ventricular ejection fraction), diastolic function (E/A' ratio, deceleration time of early left ventricular filling, isovolumetric relaxation time, E/E' septal and lateral ratio) and myocardial deformation imaging outcomes (strain and strain rate [measured in longitudinal, radial, or circumferential directions]). Secondary outcomes will be cardiac biomarkers (troponin I or T, high-sensitivity troponin I or T, brain natriuretic peptide, amino terminal of B-type natriuretic peptide). Data will be descriptively reported, and quantitative synthesis will also be considered if the included studies are sufficiently homogenous.

DISCUSSION

This systematic review will help to understand the effectiveness of physical exercise on counteracting cardiotoxicity related to anticancer therapies in women with BC.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO CRD42018096060.

Breast cancer drug trastuzumab induces cardiac toxicity: evaluation of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer in the United States and worldwide. Cancer occurs through the uncontrolled development of new abnormal cell growth. Clinicians and researchers strive to improve diagnostics and treatments in pursuit of remedying breast cancer, while limiting or removing any potential side effects that may arise. Unfortunately, traditional treatments, such as anthracyclines (i.e., doxorubicin), can damage the cardiovascular system. Recent strategies have utilized antibody-based compounds as singular treatments, or in conjunction with other treatments, with the aim to minimize side effects. The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein has been the target of numerous antibody-based breast cancer therapies, such as trastuzumab (TZM) and trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). This review will discuss the HER2 receptor as a diagnostic marker in targeting breast cancer using the therapeutic agents TZM and T-DM1, as well as discuss the induced cardiac toxicity following TZM and T-DM1 treatments.

Exercise and heart failure: an update

The present update is dedicated to the evolution of the interaction between heart failure (HF) and exercise and how the scientific community has handled it. Indeed, on the one hand, HF is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality with a stable prevalence from 1998 onward varying between 6.3% and 13.3%. On the other hand, exercise is seen as a diagnostic and prognostic tool as well as a therapeutic intervention in chronic HF. More precisely, the knowledge, the clinical application, and the research interest on the mutual interactions between exercise and HF have different phases in disease progression: Before HF onset (past): exercise provides protective benefit in preventing HF (primary prevention). With HF present: exercise improvement with training provides benefits in HF (secondary prevention). The prediction of future in HF patients: exercise impairment, as a leading characteristic of HF, is used as a prognostic factor.

Cardiomyopathic Toxicity From Chemotherapy: Is There an Opportunity for Preemptive Intervention?

OPINION STATEMENT

The fight against cancer has never appeared more optimistic with multiple ongoing advances in cancer therapeutics; however, the prevention of cardiotoxicity from these treatments, both old and new, is a major focus of recent research. We recommend conceptualizing the prevention of cardiotoxicity as binary whereby primary prevention involves a uniform application of preventative efforts to anyone receiving a potentially cardiotoxic drug and secondary prevention directed towards those with left ventricular dysfunction, whether symptomatic or not. Recent studies suggest that cardioprotective medications such as renin-angiotensin inhibitors and beta blockers, among others, may be beneficial in the primary prevention of cardiotoxicity. Importantly, the magnitude of this protective effect appears to be driven by baseline risk of cardiac disease. In terms of secondary prevention, we recommend that patients with symptomatic heart failure related to cancer treatment should be treated as aggressively as patients with heart failure from other causes, as indicated by the most recent guidelines. We identify a relative paucity of data to guide those with asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction. We summarize the literature to date with an emphasis on recent investigation and outline the importance of a continued partnership between cardiologists, oncologists, and primary care providers.