The genetic aetiology of chemotherapy induced cardiotoxcity
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The genetic aetiology of acute early onset chemotherapy induced cardiotoxicity in children
IRAS ID
152045
Contact name
S Samarasinghe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Anthracyclines are one of the most effective groups of chemotherapy medicines. They are used to successfully treat many types of childhood cancer, including leukaemia, lymphoma and solid tumours. However, one of their side effects is a form of severe heart damage called cardiomyopathy. Between 10-20 percent of anthracycline-treated children will subsequently develop severe heart damage with important long term health implications. Often this chemotherapy-induced toxicity will only become apparent several years after the child was treated.
Due to the risk treating with anthracyclines holds doses are often reduced, having an impact on cancer cure rates. This can be demonstrated in childhood acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) where an increased anthracycline dose has been shown to improve upon the current cure rate of 50-60 percent.
If we were able to predict the likelihood of a child developing cardiomyopathy, chemotherapy doses could be adjusted accordingly. Those unlikely to sustain injury would benefit from a higher dose, whilst those more likely, could have an increased level of protection against such damage.
This study will screen the genes of patients who have developed a severe form of anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy with the aim of identifying a gene or genes responsible for the condition. By doing so we hope to a) explain how anthracycline drugs cause the heart damage, and b) develop a screening test to determine how likely children are to develop chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity.
REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/1153
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion