Carvedilol with breast cancer treatment reduces echocardiographic findings



Patients with nonmetastatic HER-2 positive breast cancer and weak markers of HF treated with trastuzumab had reductions in systolic and diastolic echocardiographic findings when concomitantly treated with carvedilol, according to findings presented at EuroEcho-Imaging.wisepoqder Carvedilol powder

Maryam Moshkani Farahani, MD, associate professor at Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, and colleagues analyzed data from 71 patients with nonmetastatic HER-2 positive breast cancer who were eligible for treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin, Genentech). Patients were either assigned carvedilol with trastuzumab (n = 36) or trastuzumab alone (n = 35). Those who were assigned carvedilol received a standard dosage of 6.25 mg twice per day, which was then up-titrated to the maximally tolerated dose.
Left ventricular systolic and diastolic function were evaluated with speckle-tracking echocardiography at baseline and every 3 months.

During follow-up, mean LV ejection fraction did not differ between both groups (P = .61). Patients assigned trastuzumab alone had reductions in strain rate of LV systolic function (P = .004) and global longitudinal strain of LV (P = 0). Those assigned prophylactic carvedilol had preserved LV strain rate of early (P = 0) and late diastolic function (P = .005).

“Heart damage is a major side effect of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab and may force patients to stop treatment,” Moshkani Farahani said in a press release. “Our study suggests that patients who take the beta-blocker carvedilol together with trastuzumab have less heart damage than those who take trastuzumab alone.”
Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. is recalling 7668 bottles of carvedilol tablets, 3.125 mg, after a customer found a fragmented tablet of another drug product in a bottle. The recall was announced in the May 1, 2019, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Enforcement Report.

The recall is for 500-count bottles from lot Z803518 (Exp. 8/20). Bottles from the affected lot were manufactured by Cadila Healthcare Ltd. and distributed throughout the United States by Zydus Pharmaceuticals.

Zydus Pharmaceuticals voluntarily issued the recall April 22, 2019. On April 25, 2019, the FDA designated the recall Class III, suggesting use of the affected product is unlikely to cause adverse health consequences.Carvedilol is a prescription beta-blocker used to treat heart failure and hypertension.