It’s a big problem driven by a big success. Doxorubicin (Adriamycin; Pfi zer) and other anthracyclines effectively treat leukemias, lymphomas, and several types of solid tumors, including breast cancer. The success of these chemotherapies is one driver of the dramatic improvements in survival rates for childhood cancers since the 1970s. Sadly, the drugs have been linked to subsequent heart fail...

The anthracycline antibiotics have now been in use in curative chemotherapy protocols for over two decades. They are highly active against a wide range of haemopoietic and solid tumours in children and adults. Unfortunately, their antineoplastic use is limited by significant and irreversible cardiotoxicity, the full extent of which continues to emerge. As more children become long term survivor...

• Clifford Hudis, MD, chief of the breast cancer medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. • Martine Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD, director of the department of medicine at Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, and EORTC president. • Sandra Swain, MD, medical director of the Washington Cancer Institute, Washington, DC. 1. Are anthracyclines always necessary? “Unquestionably,...

The therapeutic efficacy of anthracyclines relies, at least partially, on the induction of a dendritic cell- and T-lymphocyte-dependent anticancer immune response. Here, we show that anthracycline-based chemotherapy promotes the recruitment of functional CD11b(+)CD11c(+)Ly6C(high)Ly6G(-)MHCII(+) dendritic cell-like antigen-presenting cells (APC) into the tumor bed, but not into lymphoid organs....

The antineoplastic effects of anthracyclines have been shown to rely, at least in part, on a local immune response that involves dendritic cells (DCs) and several distinct subsets of T lymphocytes. Here, we show that the administration of anthracyclines to mice bearing established neoplasms stimulates the intratumoral secretion of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). However, blocking the TNFα/TNF r...

BACKGROUND Anthracyclines are important components of many chemotherapeutic protocols. The present study aimed to evaluate the repolarization changes in electrocardiography (ECG) which may predict drug induced arrhythmia. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional study, the recorded ECGs were assessed for QT dispersion (QTd), QT corrected dispersion (QTcd), T peak to Tend dispersion (TPed...

Anthracyclines such as daunorubicin are anticancer agents that are transported into cells, and exert cytotoxicity by blocking DNA metabolism. Although there is evidence for active uptake of anthracyclines into cells, the specific transporter involved in this process has not been identified. Using the high-grade serous ovarian cancer cell line TOV2223G, we show that OCT1 mediated the high affini...

Accidental extravasation of anthracyclines is a feared complication. Present treatment consists of local cooling and extensive surgical debridement, which often results in severe morbidity. All clinically important anthracyclines are topoisomerase II poisons that are antagonized by topoisomerase II catalytic inhibitors such as dexrazoxane. Therefore, we investigated whether dexrazoxane protects...

Abstract Background Anthracyclines are effective chemotherapeutic agents commonly used in breast cancer (BC) treatment. Cardiotoxicity is a serious adverse effect of anthracyclines, but knowledge long-term cardiac effects limited. To our knowledge, no prior study has investigated both cardiorespiratory fitness assessed by peak oxygen consumption (V̇O2 peak) and left ventricular (LV) function fol...

Anthracyclines are commonly used chemotherapeutics, and in some models enhance p44/42-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway signaling by effects on upstream kinases. To evaluate the impact of anthracyclines on p44/42-MAPK in breast cancer, A1N4-myc human mammary and BT-474 and MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cells were studied. Treatment with doxorubicin or epirubicin resulted in increase...