One widely used chemotherapy drug to treat cancer can have harmful side-effects for the heart, but researchers in Winnipeg say they’ve now discovered a way to prevent the damage from happening.
Doctor Lorrie Kirshenbaum said doxorubicin is a widely used and effective anti-cancer chemotherapy drug, but adds it has a toxic effect on the heart and can be deadly.
Now, the University of Manitoba professor said his team at the St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre has found a way to eliminate the damage.
“We saw a complete reduction,” he said.
The research showed a gene that activates during a heart attack is also triggered by the drug, he said, meaning cells in the heart muscle shut down when that gene is switched on.
Kirshenbaum said they discovered when that gene is blocked, the cancer treatment can go ahead without a harmful heart impact on the patient.
"It has huge implications for cancer patients who are currently taking doxorubicin because we can then develop therapies that will prevent heart failure or the damaging effects of the drug on the heart,” said Kirshenbaum.
Those therapies will likely be in the form of a pill or injection to supplement doxorubicin during chemotherapy.
The researchers have done testing on mice and that's where they saw the reduction of damage to the heart.
Kirshenbaum said he hopes to see clinical trials on patients within five years.
Diagnosed with cancer three times, Larry Vilk said he had no choice but to go through two rounds of chemotherapy.
"You had your two options - live or die, and I prefer the former,” said Vilk.
Luckily for him, the side effects were minimal. He still welcomes any progress that makes the cancer journey easier.
"If they can even make the smallest of strides, it's a start,” he said.
