Project description:BackgroundHuman epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2) targeted therapies have survival benefit in adjuvant and metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer but are associated with cardiac dysfunction. Current U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommendations limit the use of HER2 targeted agents to patients with normal left ventricular (LV) systolic function.MethodsThe objective of the SAFE-HEaRt study is to evaluate the cardiac safety of HER2 targeted therapy in patients with HER2 positive breast cancer and mildly reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) with optimized cardiac therapy. Thirty patients with histologically confirmed HER2 positive breast cancer (stage I-IV) and reduced LVEF (40% to 49%) who plan to receive HER2 targeted therapy for ≥3 months will be enrolled. Prior to initiation on study, optimization of heart function with beta-blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors will be initiated. Patients will be followed by serial echocardiograms and cardiac visits during and 6 months after completion of HER2 targeted therapy. Myocardial strain and blood biomarkers, including cardiac troponin I and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, will be examined at baseline and during the study.DiscussionLV dysfunction in patients with breast cancer poses cardiac and oncological challenges and limits the use of HER2 targeted therapies and its oncological benefits. Strategies to prevent cardiac dysfunction associated with HER2 targeted therapy have been limited to patients with normal LVEF, thus excluding patients who may receive the highest benefit from those strategies. SAFE-HEaRt is the first prospective pilot study of HER2 targeted therapies in patients with reduced LV function while on optimized cardiac treatment that can provide the basis for clinical practice changes. The Oncologist 2017;22:518-525 IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2) targeted therapies have survival benefit in adjuvant and metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer but are associated with cardiac dysfunction. To our knowledge, SAFE-HEaRt is the first clinical trial that prospectively tests the hypothesis that HER2 targeted therapies may be safely administered in patients with mildly reduced cardiac function in the setting of ongoing cardiac treatment and monitoring. The results of this study will provide cardiac safety data and inform consideration of clinical practice changes in patients with HER2 positive breast cancer and reduced cardiac function, as well as provide information regarding cardiovascular monitoring and treatment in this population.

Project description:IntroductionA quarter of breast cancers show human epidermal growth factor-2 (HER2) overexpression, where targeted therapy dramatically improves survival. However, cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) occurs in up to 15% of patients. With the interruption of HER2 therapy, if necessary, and the initiation of heart failure therapy (HFT), HER2 CTRCD recovers in over 80% of cases. The need to continue HFT in 'recovered' HER2 CTRCD following completion of HER2 therapy is unclear and there are potential significant impacts on patient's quality of life (QoL). The Randomised Controlled Trial for the Safety of Withdrawal of Pharmacological Treatment for Recovered HER2 Targeted Therapy Related Cardiac Dysfunction (HER-SAFE) aims to evaluate whether HFT can be safely withdrawn in non-high cardiovascular (CV) risk patients with 'recovered' HER2 CTRCD.Methods and analysisThis is a multicentre, open-label randomised controlled trial investigating whether withdrawal of HFT is non-inferior to continuation in non-high CV risk, breast cancer survivors with recovered HER2 CTRCD after cancer treatment completion. The primary endpoint is the incidence of guideline-defined cardiac dysfunction or clinical heart failure. Secondary endpoints include changes in cardiac blood biomarkers, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived strain and tissue mapping and heart failure symptom questionnaires. The study will recruit 90 participants who will undergo serial clinical assessment over 12 months with advanced cardiovascular imaging (CMR scans with automated analysis at baseline, 6 and 12 months), cardiac biomarker measurement (six time points over 12 months), plus complete heart failure QoL and medication disutility questionnaires. This is the first multicentre study to address this significant clinical issue.Ethics and disseminationThis study was approved by the research ethics committee (London-London Bridge, 23/LO/0152). The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed scientific journals.Trial registration numberNCT05880160.

Project description:Objectives: To test whether (1) electromechanical dyssynchrony induces region-specific alterations in the myocardial transcriptome and (2) dyssynchrony-induced gene expression changes can be corrected by cardiac resynchronization (CRT). Background: To date, CRT is the only heart failure treatment that can both acutely and chronically increase systolic function and prolong survival, something not yet achieved by a drug therapy. However, the mechanisms underlying the benefits of CRT remain elusive. Methods: Adult dogs underwent left bundle branch ablation (LBBB) and right atrial pacing at 200 bpm for either 6 weeks (dyssynchronous heart failure, DHF, n=12) or 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks of resynchronization by bi-ventricular pacing at the same pacing rate (CRT, n=10). Control animals without LBBB were not paced (NF, n=14). Echocardiography and invasive hemodynamic measurements were performed at 3 and 6 weeks. At 6 weeks, RNA was isolated from the anterior and lateral LV walls and hybridized onto canine-specific 44K microarrays. Results: In DHF, transcriptional changes consistent with re-expression of a fetal gene program were primarily observed in the anterior LV, resulting in increased regional heterogeneity of gene expression within the left ventricle. Dyssynchrony-induced region-specific expression changes in 1050 transcripts were reversed by CRT to levels of NF hearts (false discovery rate <5%). CRT remodeled transcripts with metabolic and cell signaling function and greatly reduced regional heterogeneity of gene expression compared with DHF. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a profound effect of electromechanical dyssynchrony on the regional cardiac transcriptome, causing gene expression changes primarily in the anterior LV wall. CRT corrected the alterations in gene expression in the anterior wall by reversing the fetal gene expression pattern, supporting a global effect of biventricular pacing on the ventricular transcriptome that extends beyond the pacing site in the lateral wall. Complementary study to GSE14327. While GSE14327 was designed as a 1-color microarray experiment, this series was carried out following a 2-color design (anterior and lateral LV wall labeled with Cy3 and Cy5, respectively, including dye swaps).

Project description:Objectives: To test whether (1) electromechanical dyssynchrony induces region-specific alterations in the myocardial transcriptome and (2) dyssynchrony-induced gene expression changes can be corrected by cardiac resynchronization (CRT). Background: To date, CRT is the only heart failure treatment that can both acutely and chronically increase systolic function and prolong survival, something not yet achieved by a drug therapy. However, the mechanisms underlying the benefits of CRT remain elusive. Methods: Adult dogs underwent left bundle branch ablation (LBBB) and right atrial pacing at 200 bpm for either 6 weeks (dyssynchronous heart failure, DHF, n=12) or 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks of resynchronization by bi-ventricular pacing at the same pacing rate (CRT, n=10). Control animals without LBBB were not paced (NF, n=14). Echocardiography and invasive hemodynamic measurements were performed at 3 and 6 weeks. At 6 weeks, RNA was isolated from the anterior and lateral LV walls and hybridized onto canine-specific 44K microarrays. Results: In DHF, transcriptional changes consistent with re-expression of a fetal gene program were primarily observed in the anterior LV, resulting in increased regional heterogeneity of gene expression within the left ventricle. Dyssynchrony-induced region-specific expression changes in 1050 transcripts were reversed by CRT to levels of NF hearts (false discovery rate <5%). CRT remodeled transcripts with metabolic and cell signaling function and greatly reduced regional heterogeneity of gene expression compared with DHF. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a profound effect of electromechanical dyssynchrony on the regional cardiac transcriptome, causing gene expression changes primarily in the anterior LV wall. CRT corrected the alterations in gene expression in the anterior wall by reversing the fetal gene expression pattern, supporting a global effect of biventricular pacing on the ventricular transcriptome that extends beyond the pacing site in the lateral wall. Designed as a 1-color experiments, samples from anterior and lateral left ventricular myocardium from non-failing, DHF and CRT animals were labeled with Cy3 and hybridized onto Agilent 44K long oligonucleotide arrays.

Project description:Objectives: To test whether (1) electromechanical dyssynchrony induces region-specific alterations in the myocardial transcriptome and (2) dyssynchrony-induced gene expression changes can be corrected by cardiac resynchronization (CRT). Background: To date, CRT is the only heart failure treatment that can both acutely and chronically increase systolic function and prolong survival, something not yet achieved by a drug therapy. However, the mechanisms underlying the benefits of CRT remain elusive. Methods: Adult dogs underwent left bundle branch ablation (LBBB) and right atrial pacing at 200 bpm for either 6 weeks (dyssynchronous heart failure, DHF, n=12) or 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks of resynchronization by bi-ventricular pacing at the same pacing rate (CRT, n=10). Control animals without LBBB were not paced (NF, n=14). Echocardiography and invasive hemodynamic measurements were performed at 3 and 6 weeks. At 6 weeks, RNA was isolated from the anterior and lateral LV walls and hybridized onto canine-specific 44K microarrays. Results: In DHF, transcriptional changes consistent with re-expression of a fetal gene program were primarily observed in the anterior LV, resulting in increased regional heterogeneity of gene expression within the left ventricle. Dyssynchrony-induced region-specific expression changes in 1050 transcripts were reversed by CRT to levels of NF hearts (false discovery rate <5%). CRT remodeled transcripts with metabolic and cell signaling function and greatly reduced regional heterogeneity of gene expression compared with DHF. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a profound effect of electromechanical dyssynchrony on the regional cardiac transcriptome, causing gene expression changes primarily in the anterior LV wall. CRT corrected the alterations in gene expression in the anterior wall by reversing the fetal gene expression pattern, supporting a global effect of biventricular pacing on the ventricular transcriptome that extends beyond the pacing site in the lateral wall.

Project description:Targeted drugs have revolutionized the treatment of advanced non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the understanding of how cardiac comorbidity and toxicity affect the clinical outcomes of patients following targeted therapy remains limited. In a 14‑year cohort, cardiac comorbidities and toxicities among patients with stage‑IV NSCLC treated with targeted therapy were identified. The cardiotoxicities were compared in three patient groups: Cardiac, other and no comorbidities. Survival analysis employed Cox Proportional Hazard Models. In the prospectively followed 3,767 patients with stage‑IV NSCLC, 701 received targeted therapy; of which 133 (19.0%) had cardiac comorbidity, 504 (71.9%) had other comorbidities and 64 (9.1%) had none. In total, 15 patients (2.1%) developed cardiotoxicity after taking drugs targeting epidermal growth factor receptor, anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), c‑ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) or vascular endothelial growth factor/receptor (VEGF)/VEGFR, and all 15 had comorbidities: 10 cardiac and 5 other comorbidities. Cardiac comorbidity was associated with a 7.5‑fold higher risk of targeted therapy‑related cardiotoxicity than other comorbidities (7.5 vs. 1.0%; P<0.001). Patients with or without cardiotoxicity had a median survival time of 4.7 or 1.9 years, respectively, and patients with cardiotoxicity had a lower risk of death (hazard ratio, 0.45; 95% confidence interval, 0.25‑0.81) than those without (P=0.003), when adjusting for comorbidities. In the 164 patients that received osimertinib, 32 (19.5%) had cardiac comorbidity and a 1.7‑fold higher risk of death than the 121 (73.8%) patients with other comorbidities. In the 74 patients treated with ALK/ROS1 inhibitors, cardiotoxicity was 14 times more common in patients with heart disease (30.0%) than those without (2.1%) (P=0.001). Cardiotoxicity was uncommon in patients with targeted drug‑treated stage‑IV NSCLC but was more prevalent in those with cardiac comorbidity and appeared to be a protector for longer survival. However, in osimertinib‑treated patients, cardiac comorbidity increased mortality.

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Rationale and design of a cardiac safety study for reduced cardiotoxicity surveillance during HER2-targeted therapy.

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Rationale and design of a cardiac safety study for reduced cardiotoxicity surveillance during HER2-targeted therapy.

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