Certain anticancer agents could be harmful to patients with heart disease
Monday, June 23, 2008 - 18:20
in Health & Medicine
A set of promising new anticancer agents could have unforeseen risks in individuals with heart disease, suggests research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The anticancer drugs — which go by the strange name of hedgehog antagonists — interfere with a biochemical process that promotes growth in some cancer cells. But the researchers showed that interfering with this biochemical process in mice with heart disease led to further deterioration of cardiac function and ultimately death.