PMID: 16520666Mar 8, 2006Paper

Gemcitabine and atrial fibrillation: a rare manifestation of chemotherapy toxicity

Anti-cancer Drugs
Daris FerrariPaolo Foa

Abstract

Gemcitabine is a purine analog with known activity in many solid tumors, namely lung, breast, pancreatic, genitourinary and head/neck cancers. Cardiac toxicity is a rare event and only one report previously described atrial fibrillation (AF) as a consequence of gemcitabine infusion. We report two cases of women suffering from lung cancer who were treated with gemcitabine. Both patients were admitted to hospital for paroxysmal AF occurring 12-24 h after the infusion of the drug. In the first case a sinus rhythm was spontaneously repristinated when AF occurred for the first time, while the second episode required an anti-arrhythmic drug to interrupt the dysrhythmia. In the second case, the patient had to be treated with digitalis glycoside to control the ventricular response without attaining a sinus rhythm. We could not recognize any other precipitating factor beyond the infusion of gemcitabine as a cause for the arrhythmia. Both cases were treated with gemcitabine for lung cancer and we observed the appearance of AF less than 24 h after drug administration. We assume that 2',2'-difluorodeoxyuridine, an active metabolite of gemcitabine, could be responsible for the toxic effect. We conclude that AF is an unusual, but potentially...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 6, 2009·Europace : European Pacing, Arrhythmias, and Cardiac Electrophysiology : Journal of the Working Groups on Cardiac Pacing, Arrhythmias, and Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology·Maya GuglinAnne B Curtis
Jun 25, 2014·Journal of Medical Case Reports·Muhammad F KhanElizabeth Juneman
Jan 23, 2008·Clinical & Translational Oncology : Official Publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico·M SerenoM González-Barón
Jun 26, 2012·Expert Opinion on Drug Safety·Juan TamargoEva Delpón
Oct 6, 2006·Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy·Robin L Jones, Michael S Ewer
Sep 16, 2020·Circulation·James E TisdaleUNKNOWN American Heart Association Clinical Pharmacology Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology and Council on Cardiovascul
Feb 22, 2017·ESC Heart Failure·Donya MohebaliJames Ducksoon Chang
Apr 27, 2007·Onkologie·Yusuf TavilBülent Boyaci
Feb 6, 2021·Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice : Official Publication of the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners·Lucrezia RaimondiGian Paolo Spinelli
Apr 30, 2021·Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases·Danilo MenichelliDaniele Pastori

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