[Clinical observation of electrocardiographic changes in response to taxotere combined with adriamycin treatment for breast cancer].

OBJECTIVE

To study the effects of taxotere and adriamycin based chemotherapy on the electrocardiogram (ECG) of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

METHODS

Chemotherapy combining taxotere (75 mg/m(2)) and adriamycin (5 mg/m(2)) once every 3 weeks was performed in 250 patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Electrocardiograph was recorded before and after each treatment course for a total of 10 courses.

RESULTS

After the completion of the 10 treatment courses, 8 (3.2%) patients had accelerated heart rate, 12 presented low voltage of QRS complex in the limb leads, and Q-T interval extension, ST segment depression, T-wave flattening, T-wave inversion occurred in 28, 18, 29, and 12 patients, respectively. The rest patients had no ECG changes.

CONCLUSIONS

Taxotere and adriamycin as antitumor chemotherapeutic drugs may cause toxicity in the heart, and result in pericardial effusion, myocardial injury, chronic myocardial ischemia or hypoxia that may lead to abnormal changes in QRS complex and ST-T segment in ECG.