Evaluation of the effect of carvedilol in preventing right ventricular dysfunction in breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline

Today, it has been shown that it is possible for right ventricular (RV) wall motion abnormalities or RV functional disorders to occur during cancer treatment. Now, considering the effect of carvedilol on beta 1, 2, and alpha receptors and its antioxidant properties, it seems that it can prevent RV abnormalities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible protective effects of carvedilol in preventing RV dysfunction in patients with breast cancer treated with anthracyclines.

The present single‑blind clinical trial study was performed on 23 patients with breast cancer that 12 of them received only the anthracycline antineoplastic doxorubicin (Adriamycin®) chemotherapy (control group) and 11 patients received carvedilol in addition to anthracycline. To evaluate the effect of carvedilol, patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography before intervention and 2 weeks after the end of treatment with anthracyclines.

The two parameters of RV ejection fraction and RV fractional area change in the carvedilol group with a mean of 66.41% ± 8.10% and 51.85% ± 6.89% were slightly higher than the control group with a mean of 64.58% ± 6.83% and 50.48 ± 5.79%, respectively, which was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). In contrast, RV S wave tissue Doppler imaging (S‑TDI) in the control group with a mean of 0.13 ± 0.02 m/s was significantly lower than the carvedilol group with a mean of 0.14 ± 0.02 m/s (P = 0.022).

According to the results of the present study, the effect of using carvedilol as a preservative on improving RV function was seen compared to the control group, although this difference was not statistically significant.