Researchers publish findings that could help prevent side effects for breast cancer patients (Dexamethasone)

Medical Xpress / Indiana University School of Medicine / Nature Communications ^ | Dec. 20, 2022 | Xi Wu et al

[ConservativeMind]

Researchers are learning more about ways to prevent serious side effects from chemotherapy used to treat breast cancer patients. The work led by Xi Wu, Ph.D. was recently published.

Anthracyclines belong to a class of chemotherapy agents used to treat a variety of cancers and remain an important part of therapy for patients with high-risk breast cancer. While effective in improving cure rates, they can also cause serious heart damage, including heart failure, which is often irreversible.

"This is of crucial clinical importance for breast cancer patients as there are no proven strategies for prevention or interventions for cardiotoxicity," said Wu.

"In addition, there are no clinically indicated biomarkers to predict which patients are at risk of developing this side effect before starting an anthracycline-based treatment. In our publication, we provide molecular mechanisms by which a genetic variant previously identified by our group may lead to the clinical development of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in patients."

Previous research by the Schneider laboratory suggested that people may be more likely to experience serious heart damage, known as cardiotoxicity, after getting chemotherapy with anthracyclines based on their genetics, but there has not been enough information to determine which specific genes are independent of other cardiac risk factors.

"We know it is tricky to balance the toxicity needed to kill cancer cells, while also protecting the rest of a patient's healthy body," said Bryan P. Schneider, MD.

Their findings also uncovered an unexpected potential value for dexamethasone, a steroid pre-treatment routinely used to prevent nausea and allergic reactions. This drug, or perhaps other drugs that work in a similar way, may be a key strategy for minimizing cardiotoxicity as a side effect to chemotherapy.

[ConservativeMind]

Both the cancer markers of consequence, and the therapy, the proposed Dexamethasone (very commonly available and inexpensive), are in the paper.

[ConservativeMind]

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