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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Kidney and stomach cancer patients given the chemotherapy drug Sutent (also called sunitinib), especially those with cardiac risk factors, need to be closely monitored for signs of heart trouble, results of a study confirm.
In a look back at 224 patients treated with sunitinib, researchers found that six (nearly 3 percent) developed signs of heart failure soon after treatment began.
Heart failure causing symptoms occurred at an average of 22 days after sunitinib was initiated, resulting in a decline in heart function and increased blood pressure.
In most patients, heart failure was not completely reversible, despite termination of sunitinib treatment, Dr. Daniel J. Lenihan, of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues report in the journal Cancer.
Sunitinib is an approved treatment for advanced kidney cancer and rare gastrointestinal tumors called stromal tumors that do not respond to imatinib (Gleevec).
"Sunitinib is an important new drug in the cancer armamentarium and will likely be used in many forms of cancer," Lenihan noted in an interview with Reuters Health.
The current findings, Lenihan noted, "are crucial to identify and define further and to be able to manage any potential side effects of this new therapy and prevent cardiac toxicity during cancer therapy."
The researchers are now investigating the mechanisms of sunitinib heart toxicity in animal models. "Prospective observational studies are being performed with cardiac toxicity in mind during sunitinib therapy and also proactive cardiac management is being strongly encouraged to allow optimal treatment of patients who undergo this type of chemotherapy," Lenihan noted.
SOURCE: Cancer, June 1, 2008.
