Cancer Treatments Linked to Heart Problems
Only certain cancer therapies are linked to heart troubles. These may include:
- Radiation therapy, especially when given to the chest because it’s so close to the heart
- Certain chemotherapy medicines, particularly anthracycline-based chemotherapy, though the amount used today is less than that used in previous decades
- Certain targeted therapies or newer immunotherapy drugs
Cancer Treatments Linked to Heart Problems
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Anthracyclines | Daunorubicin (Cerubidine, DaunoXome) Doxorubicin (Adriamycin, Doxil, Lipodox) Epirubicin (Ellence) Idarubicin (Idamycin PFS) Mitoxantrone (Novatrone) Valrubicin (Valstar) |
| HER-2 Targeted Therapy | Lapatinib (Tykerb, Tyverb) Neratinib (Nerlynx) Pertuzumab (Perjeta) Trastuzumab (Herceptin) Trastuzumab druxtecan (Enhertu) Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) Tucatinib (Tukysa) |
| Fluoropyrimidines | 5-fluorouracil aka 5-FU (Adrucil) Capecitabine (Xeloda) |
| Anti-angiogenic Therapy (VEGF inhibitors) | Aflibercept (Zaltrap) Axitinib (Inlyta) Bevacizumab (Avastin, Alymsys, Mvasi, Zirabev) Cabozantinib (Cometriq) Lenvatinib (Lenvima) Pazopanib (Votrient) Ramucirumab (Cyramza) Regorafenib (Stivarga) Sorafenib (Nexavar) Sunitinib (Sutent) Vandetanib (Caprelsa) |
| Aromatase Inhibitors | Anastrozole (Arimidex) Exemestane (Aromasin) Letrozole (Femara) |
| Androgen Deprivation Therapy | Abiraterone (Zytiga) Apalutamide (Erleada, Erlyand) Bicalutamide (Casodex, Cosudex, Calutide, Bicalutamid) Darolutamide (Nubeqa) Degarelix (Firmagon) Enzalutamide (Xtandi) Flutamide (Eulexin, Flutasin, Flutamid) Goserelin (Zoladex) Leuprolide (Lupron Depot, Camcevi, Eligard) Nilutamide (Anandron, Nilandron) Relugolix (Orgovyx, Relumina) Triptorelin (Trelstar, Tripodur) |
| Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors | Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) Avelumab (Bavencio) Dorstarlimab (Jemperli) Durvalumab (Imfinzi) Ipilimumab (Yervoy) Nivolumab (Opdivo) Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) Retifanlimab (Zynyz) Toripalimab (Loqtorzi) Tremelimumab (Imjudo) |
| BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors | Bosutinib (Bosulif) Dasatinib (Sprycel) Imatinib (Gleevec, Glivec) Nilotinib (Tasigna) Ponatinib (Iclusig) |
| Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) Inhibitors | Acalabrutinib (Calquence) Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) Zanubrutinib (Brukinsa) |
| Proteasome Inhibitors | Bortezomib (Velcade) Carfilzomib (Kyprolis) Ixazomib (Ninlaro) |
| Cellular Therapies | Autologous or allogenic hemopoietic stem cell transplant aka Bone marrow transplant CAR-T Therapies: Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvytki) Idecabtagene vicleucel (Abecma) Lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi) Tisageniecleucel (Kymriah) |
Other factors can play a role in how likely someone is to develop heart troubles as a side effect of their cancer treatments. For example, if you:
- Already have heart disease – that is, before finding out you have cancer
- Have risk factors for heart disease – such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight or smoking
- Older age
- Receive higher doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy
- Are on more than one treatment known to have damaging effects on the heart (for example, chest radiation therapy in addition to an anthracycline-based chemotherapy and trastuzumab)
- Last Edited 10/23/2024