Drugs to shield heart from chemo

NEW YORK: Two classes of blood pressure drugs show promise in preventing heart complications caused by chemotherapy for breast cancer, researchers report.

One in four women who receives chemo drug Herceptin develops heart problems. However, the drug is highly effective at treating aggressive breast cancer.

Researchers found ACE inhibitors and beta blockers did not help protect the hearts of patients who received Herceptin alone. But they did protect tpatients who also received another chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin, before they received Herceptin.

In those patients, heart problems occurred in 37% of patients who received ACE inhibitors and 31% of those who received beta blockers. That compared with 47%of patients who didn’t receive either type of drug.– The New York Times