Follow-up

Some lifesaving cancer therapies can harm the heart and arteries (Harvard Heart Letter, March 2010). Trastuzumab (Herceptin), a drug used to treat one type of breast cancer, has improved survival for women, but it can also weaken the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber.

One study suggests that the problem may be more common than researchers had initially suspected, especially among older women. A team of researchers from Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, reviewed the medical records of 45 women ages 70 and older who were treated with trastuzumab. Four developed heart failure, and another eight had declines in a measure called left ventricular ejection fraction, indicating a problem in the left ventricle. Eleven of the women recovered after stopping trastuzumab, though recovery sometimes took as long as 21 weeks. In one woman, heart failure persisted (Annals of Oncology, published online Aug. 9, 2011).