Five cases of anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy effectively treated with carvedilol.

Anthracycline, a widely used anti-cancer agent, can elicit irreversible cardiomyopathy called anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy (ACM). In this report, we describe 5 cases of severe chronic heart failure due to ACM effectively treated with the beta-blocker, carvedilol. Their left ventricular function as well as cardiac symptoms were persistently improved after treatment with carvedilol, suggesting that carvedilol may be an effective therapeutic strategy for ACM as demonstrated in other forms of chronic heart failure.