We tested the efficacy of nifedipine to reverse acquired resistance to chemotherapy regimens containing doxorubicin or vinblastine or both in 12 patients with metastatic breast cancer. All patients had been receiving one or both of these drugs, had had a prior partial response (median duration 5 months, range 2-10) and subsequently progressed. Immediately after drug resistance was documented by tumor progression, eligible patients with measurable or evaluable disease were treated with nifedipine beginning 3 days before restarting the same chemotherapy. The initial dose of nifedipine was 20 mg TID, escalating daily to 40 mg TID on day 3 if the patient had no serious side effects. Nifedipine was continued at the highest tolerable dose during and for 2 days after completion of the chemotherapy. Most patients had I2 prior chemotherapy regimens and a median Zubrod performance status of 1. Twelve patients received a total of 23 courses preceded by nifedipine. No objective tumor responses were observed. The expected toxic effects attributable to nifedipine occurred, but nifedipine did not increase the toxicity caused by the chemotherapy. Nifedipine, given in this dose and schedule, did not reverse acquired drug resistance in patients with breast cancer. Int.

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To determine the activity of combination hormonal therapy for platinum‐resistant ovarian carcinoma, we treated 20 patients with leuprolide acetate 7.5 mg intramuscularly once a month and tamoxifen 20 mg orally twice a day. Among the 17 evaluable patients, two patients (12%; 95% CI: 0–27) had a partial response, each lasting 7 months. An additional five patients (29%; 95% CI: 8–51) experienced disease stabilization with a median duration of 5 months. This response rate is not significantly different from previously published studies using either leuprolide acetate or tamoxifen alone. The median survival duration was 14.4 months and this was not significantly different from that of our previous study with high‐dose Taxol (P = 0.0668). The treatment was well‐tolerated, with minimal toxicity. Combination hormone therapy with leuprolide acetate and tamoxifen does not result in increased activity compared with either drug used alone for platinum‐refractory ovarian carcinoma. However, hormonal therapy should remain an important consideration for this disease since it has documented activity with minimal associated toxicity.

Anthracyclines (anth) are potent antineoplasic agents, although, their efficacy is limited by cardiotoxicity. Most lymphoid malignancies tend to recur and commonly require anthracycline-based chemotherapy (anth-bch) re-treatment. Our aim is to compare the pretreatment left ventricle ejection fraction (lvef) and global longitudinal strain (gls) between patients (pts) with new diagnosis of lymphoma (lym) and pts with lym recurrence that were treated previously with anth-bch. Among pts referred to assess lvef and gls prior to start ttm, lym patients were selected and divided in two groups: pts with recurrent lymp previously treated with anth and pts with new diagnosis of lymp. Patients data, lvef and gls values were collected retrospectively. 96 pts data were analyzed (see table): 23 pts (24%) with previous anth ttm and 73 newly diagnosed pts. No differences were found in baseline characteristics. Pts who previously had been treated with anth-bch demonstrated significantly lower lvef than the other group and there were more patients with lvef in the normal lower limit. Gls was also lower but the difference was not significant. The fact that gls was not calculated in all patients may explain this finding. No differences were found in diastolic function. Previous cardiotoxic ttm and lower limit of normal lvef have been described as patient-related risk factors for developing cardiotoxicity. Currently, previous cardiotoxicity risk assessment is critical to allow preventive measures. Cardio-oncology units are crucial to address cardiovascular (cv) needs of cancer patients. * p < 0.05 Previous anthracycline No previous anthracycline p n (%) 23 ( 24 %) 73 ( 76%) Women, n (%) 9 (39%) 34 (47%) 0,31 Age (m +/- SD) 66,2 +/- 14,6 63,2 +/- 17,4 0,44 Arterial hypertension, n(%) 8 (35%) 26 (36%) 1 Diabetes, n (%) 5 (22%) 8 (10%) 0,29 Dyslipidemia, n (%) 7 (30%) 28 (37%) 0,62 ACE inhibitor, n (%) 2 (8,7%) 4 (5,5%) 0,62 Betablokers, n (%) 5 (22%) 19 (26%) 0,78 FEVI (Simpson)*, m +/- SD 57,3 +/- 7 62,7 +/- 6 0,0007 GLS -19,3 +/- 3 -20,2 +/- 3,7 0,52 LVEF < 55%* 5 (22%) 4 (5,5%) 0,03 Comparison between lymphoma patients treated previuosly with antrhacycline and with no previous cardiotoxic treatment.