Thursday, 1 November 2012

Key discovered to how chemotherapy drug causes heart failure

Doxorubicin, a 50-year-old chemotherapy drug still in widespread use against a variety of cancers, has long been known to destroy heart tissue, as well as tumors, in some patients. Scientists have identified an unexpected mechanism via the enzyme Top2b that drives the drug's attack on heart muscle, providing a new approach for identifying patients who can safely tolerate doxorubicin and for developing new drugs. Read more here.

Study mentioned: Zhang S, et al. Identification of the molecular basis of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Nat Med. 2012 Oct 28. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 23104132

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