The Heartbreak of Cancer Treatment: The Latest in Late Cardiac Toxicity
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This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Therapy-Related Cardiac Risk in Childhood Cancer Survivors: An Analysis of the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study”) by Bates et al. My name is Joseph Carver, and I am the Chief of Staff at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My specialty is cardio-oncology.

It is universally accepted that therapeutic radiotherapy and/or anthracycline-based chemotherapy have a significant impact on the heart resulting in cardiac morbidity and mortality. High risk groups are now defined on the basis of a doxorubicin-equivalent anthracycline dose of ≥250 mg/m2 and/or total radiation dose of ≥30 Gy when the heart is in the treatment field.   It is universally accepted that therapeutic radiotherapy and/or anthracycline-based chemotherapy have a significant impact on the heart resulting in cardiac morbidity and mortality. High risk groups are now defined on the basis of a doxorubicin-equivalent anthracycline dose of ≥250 mg/m2 and/or total radiation dose of ≥30 Gy when the heart is in the treatment field.  Total dose delivered does not reflect specific cardiac exposure.  This has led to report the mean heart dose that is the percent cardiac volume within the radiation fields.  For most treated patients, discovery of anthracycline cumulative dosing is easily abstracted and straightforward. For modern therapeutic radiation, however, historical mean heart dose or other cardiac dosimetric parameters have not been traditionally reported and may be more difficult to obtain. This has led to a lack of consensus about the cardiovascular risk when the total dose is <30 Gy,

In the article that accompanies this podcast, Bates et al1 enhance our understanding of the association between cardiac volume exposure to different radiation therapy doses and rates of serious cardiac conditions among long term survivors of pediatric cancer and reaffirms the association of cumulative anthracycline dose and subsequent risk for cardiomyopathy.

With data from the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Study, they determined the rates of self-reported grade 3-5 cardiac conditions as defined by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events  v4.03 in 24,214 >5-year survivors who were treated for a variety of cancers at a median age of 7 years.  Evaluation occurred at a median follow-up of 20.3 years with a median attained age of 27.5 years.  Late cardiac risk was compared to 5,046 untreated siblings.  For each survivor, radiation fields were reconstructed on age-specific phantoms to calculate estimated mean heart dose and the percent of heart volume receiving at least 5 Gy (low dose) and 20 Gy (higher dose).  Doxorubicin-equivalent doses were similarly abstracted.

Toxicity parameters were any cardiac disease, coronary artery disease and heart failure.  They found a cumulative incidence of cardiac disease, 30 years from diagnosis of 4.8% (95% CI 4.3-5.2). There was a dose relationship between mean heart dose and all parameters.  Both low-moderate doses (5-19.9 Gy) to a large volume of the heart (>50%) and higher doses (≥20Gy) to small cardiac volumes (0.1-29.9%) were associated with an increased risk of cardiac disease. Heart failure drove the risk of high doses to small volumes while CAD drove the risk of low doses to large volumes.

Similarly, they reconfirm the relationship between cumulative anthracycline dosing and any cardiac disease with an increased risk for those treated at a younger age (≤ 13 years of age).  An increased relative risk for any cardiac disease was also present with any anthracycline exposure (0.1-