Okeahialam BN, Muoneme SA and Egesie OJ
Heart disease can result from cancers and their treatment, heart failure being the case over time. This is however not our local experience as hardly we find heart failure patients with a past history of cancer or chemotherapy. We therefore decided to evaluate a cohort of patients on follow-up for haematological cancer therapy for cardiovascular status with a view to defining their heart disease burden. Thirteen patients (6 F) with age range of 18 to 55 years on follow-up for haematological cancers underwent cardiovascular examination and relevant data extracted from their files. None of them was in heart failure after a range of 1 to 3 years of therapy. Most however received Prednisolone as adjunctive treatment for their cancers namely: CLL, CML, ALL, AML and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The low rate of heart disease in our cohort of haematological cancers was surprising. Whether it is due to genetics, environmental factor or adjunctive treatment would require further studies to elucidate. Steroids being anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic may be countering inflammatory and fibrotic cardiac damage that chemotherapeutic agents cause.
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Journal of Cancer Clinical Trials received 95 citations as per Google Scholar report
