Advances in cancer treatment mean that more people than ever are surviving the disease. However, some of the most effective anticancer drugs-a class of medicines called anthracyclines-can cause serious damage to the heart. In some patients, this cardiac damage appears months or even years after treatment and has a major impact on quality of life.
Protecting the heart without compromising the effectiveness of chemotherapy is a major challenge in the field of cardio-oncology. Now, a team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), led by Dr. Borja Ibáñez, provides new evidence that this can be achieved.
The study, published in Basic Research in Cardiology, demonstrates in an experimental model that the heart can be protected during anthracycline treatment using a simple,…