The work will allow a better characterization of the cancer patient to potentially toxic therapies, prevent and minimize adverse effects
29 jul 2021 . Updated at 05:00 h.
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Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women worldwide. Advances in early diagnosis and therapeutic approaches in recent decades have led to a gradual increase in survival rates and life expectancy. This has revealed the long-term detrimental effects associated with cancer treatment.
Now, USC CiMUS researchers have identified new biomarkers of cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients. The work, central theme of the thesis defended yesterday by Mara Cebro, offers a better characterization of the cancer patient to potentially toxic therapies and allows to prevent and minimize adverse effects, optimize their management, guarantee a higher quality of life, as well as describe new therapeutic targets .
Cardiotoxicity is currently considered one of the most common complications associated with chemotherapy. Thus, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among cancer survivors. The predisposition to cardiotoxicity is multifactorial and can condition access to adequate treatment, at the cost of a worse prognosis in the oncological process. Until recently, the use of anthracyclines was associated with cardiotoxicity, due to their extensive prescription and the greater number of studies; However, more and more data indicate the use of new generation cytostatics also affect cardiac function. At present, the diagnosis depends on changes in the left ventricular exection fraction or on the detection of serum markers such as troponins and natriuretic peptides. This limits the diagnosis to symptomatic damage, in some cases irreversible.
In this context, it is essential to have tools that allow adequate risk stratification and early diagnosis, in order to prevent and minimize potential adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and the interruption of cancer treatment. Precisely, the objective of the present work, supervised by RicardoLage, Isabel Moscoso and Jos Ramn Gonzlez Juanatey, has been to evaluate whether individual differences in the expression profile of miRNAs and in circulating adipokine levels, together with echocardiographic parameters, which allow a better characterization of the cancer patient undergoing potentially cardiotxic therapies.
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