The use of cardiac biopsy to demonstrate reduced cardiotoxicity in AIDS Kaposi's sarcoma patients treated with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin ANNALS OF ONCOLOGY Berry, G., Billingham, M., Alderman, E., Richardson, P., Torti, F., Lum, B., Patek, A., Martin, F. J. 1998; 9 (7): 711-716

Abstract

Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PL-DOX) has been shown in preclinical models to induce less cardiotoxicity than non-liposomal doxorubicin. Endomyocardial biopsy is a highly sensitive and specific method for detecting anthracycline-induced cardiac damage.Myocardial tissue from ten KS patients who had received cumulative PL-DOX (20 mg/m2/biweekly) of 440-840 mg/m2 was evaluated for evidence of anthracycline-induced cardiac damage. Controls were assembled from patients who had received cumulative doxorubicin doses of 174-671 mg/m2 in two earlier cardiac biopsy protocols. Two control groups were selected on the basis of both cumulative (+/- 10 mg/m2) and peak doxorubicin dose (60 or 20 mg/m2, control group 1), or peak dose alone (20 mg/m2, control group 2).PL-DOX patients had significantly lower biopsy scores compared with those of doxorubicin controls despite higher cumulative doses of anthracycline. The median biopsy scores for the PL-DOX and doxorubicin groups, respectively, were 0.3 vs. 3.0 (P = 0.002, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel row mean difference test) for group 1 and 1.25 for group 2 (P < 0.001, Wilcoxon rank-sum test).Less severe cardiac changes were seen in patients given PL-DOX relative to historical control patients given comparable cumulative doses of doxorubicin.

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View details for PubMedID 9739435