Long-term evaluation of cardiac function in children who received anthracyclines during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND The use of anthracyclines in patients with cancer has been associated with the presence, even when standard doses were employed, of cardiac toxicity, most frequently after 5 years of therapy. Treatment of cancer during pregnancy remains a dilemma because cytotoxic therapy has been associated with the presence of severe side-effects. The outcome of children that received antracyclines during pregnancy, including during the first trimester, remain unknown because long-term follow-up is not available. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighty-one children whose mothers (29 acute leukemia, 33 malignant lymphoma and 19 Hodgkin's disease) were treated with cytotoxic drugs, including anthracyclines, during pregnancy were evaluated to detect cardiac toxicity, including clinical evaluation and echocardiogram [all parameters were evaluated, but fraction shortening (FS) was taking as the best parameter to evaluate cardiac toxicity in children] every 5 years after birth until 29 years of age. RESULTS Children with actual age of 9.3-29.5 years (mean 17.1) did not show any clinical date of cardiac disfunction, in all cases echocardiogram was normal and FS did not showed any abnormality during the follow-up. CONCLUSIONS The use of anthracyclines did not show any clinical or echocardiogram evidence of late cardiac toxicity. We hope that the present report increases the number of reports of the long-term follow-up of children who received cytotoxic drugs, in order to define the best treatment in this special patient setting.