Do potent cures for cancer increase the risk of heart disease?

In rare cases, potent drugs that induce the immune system to fight cancer can compromise the heart. This is reported by the researchers.

These are immunotherapy medications. In recent years, they have completely changed the very process of treatment for cancer, as in some patients who hoped only for surgery, remission began.

The first deaths

However, on November 3, the New England Journal of Medicine described two cases where patients in advanced melanoma died of heart disease two weeks after receiving their first doses of drugs such as Opdivo (Nivolumab) and Yervoy (Ipilimumab).

One of the patients was a 65-year-old woman who died of heart failure, while another was a 63-year-old man who died after two cases of sudden cardiac arrest. During a heart attack, blood flow to the heart is blocked, which leads to tissue damage, while in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest, it stops beating at all.

The risk of using similar drugs

The authors of the report also added that two similar drugs on the market - Tecentriq (Atezolizumab), a drug against bladder cancer, and Keytruda (Pembrolizumab), which was used to treat brainwave-spreading melanoma from former President Jimmy Carter of America - may represent a similar danger .

Nevertheless, cases of heart damage are very unusual, and are less than 1%. It is assumed that the risk is highest when two of these drugs are taken at the same time, the authors of the report add.

Opinion of specialists

Researchers emphasize that complications should not divert attention from the benefits of these drugs for cancer patients.

"This is a new, previously unknown complication of potentially life-saving drugs," said the senior author of the study, Dr. Javid Moslehi. He is the director of the School of Medicine in Nashville.

"We are trying to work out a solution to this problem. Our job is not to recognize these drugs as dangerous, but to correct the situation, "Moslehi said.

Patients taking these drugs should be carefully monitored. If they discover this new problem, they will need to quickly give them medicines that will change the immune system response, "the researchers say.

Dr. Michael Atkins, deputy director of the Georgetown-Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC, believes that heart problems caused by these drugs can be resolved. Atkins supervised studies during which one of the two patients died. "This is a rare case ... but especially serious," he said.