PURPOSE: Up to now, cardiotoxicity of epirubicin has been studied almost exclusively in adult cancer patients. The aim of this study was to investigate epirubicin in children and adolescents, in comparison with doxorubicin. METHODS: About 172 soft tissue sarcoma patients (mean age at diagnosis: 8.3 years), treated with epirubicin (median cumulative dose: 450 mg/m2) or doxorubicin (median cumulative dose: 240 mg/m2) within the high-risk group of the CWS-96 study, were examined in a prospective multicentre study. Heart function was analysed by echocardiography, measuring left-ventricular fractional shortening (FS). The median follow up was 27.7 months. RESULTS: Incidence of clinically manifest cardiomyopathy was 0% (0/60; 95% CI: 0-6.0%) in patients treated with epirubicin, and 0.9% (1/108; 95% CI: 0-5.1%) in patients treated with doxorubicin. A further three patients showed subclinical cardiomyopathy. There was no difference in FS between the two treatment arms. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiotoxicity was low in our study. For the short term, cardiotoxicity seems to be only a minor problem in patients treated with epirubicin as applied in this cohort.
PURPOSE: Up to now, cardiotoxicity of epirubicin has been studied almost exclusively in adult cancerpatients. The aim of this study was to investigate epirubicin in children and adolescents, in comparison with doxorubicin. METHODS: About 172 soft tissue sarcomapatients (mean age at diagnosis: 8.3 years), treated with epirubicin (median cumulative dose: 450 mg/m2) or doxorubicin (median cumulative dose: 240 mg/m2) within the high-risk group of the CWS-96 study, were examined in a prospective multicentre study. Heart function was analysed by echocardiography, measuring left-ventricular fractional shortening (FS). The median follow up was 27.7 months. RESULTS: Incidence of clinically manifest cardiomyopathy was 0% (0/60; 95% CI: 0-6.0%) in patients treated with epirubicin, and 0.9% (1/108; 95% CI: 0-5.1%) in patients treated with doxorubicin. A further three patients showed subclinical cardiomyopathy. There was no difference in FS between the two treatment arms. CONCLUSIONS:Cardiotoxicity was low in our study. For the short term, cardiotoxicity seems to be only a minor problem in patients treated with epirubicin as applied in this cohort.
Authors: M T Meinardi; D J van Veldhuisen; J A Gietema; W V Dolsma; F Boomsma; M P van den Berg; C Volkers; J Haaksma; E G de Vries; D T Sleijfer; W T van der Graaf Journal: J Clin Oncol Date: 2001-05-15 Impact factor: 44.544
Authors: L J Steinherz; T Graham; R Hurwitz; H M Sondheimer; R G Schwartz; E M Shaffer; G Sandor; L Benson; R Williams Journal: Pediatrics Date: 1992-05 Impact factor: 7.124
Authors: F M Torti; M M Bristow; B L Lum; S K Carter; A E Howes; D A Aston; B W Brown; J F Hannigan; F J Meyers; E P Mitchell Journal: Cancer Res Date: 1986-07 Impact factor: 12.701
Authors: Y Cottin; C Touzery; F Dalloz; B Coudert; M Toubeau; A Riedinger; P Louis; J E Wolf; F Brunotte Journal: Clin Cardiol Date: 1998-09 Impact factor: 2.882