Clues sought for why pediatric cancer survivors develop heart failure

Cancer chemotherapy changes the function of cells that repair heart injury, researchers at UT Health San Antonio discovered. Twenty percent of children treated with drugs called anthracyclines go on to suffer heart failure later in life.

The journal PLOS ONE published the results Sept. 22 during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The research is conducted in the laboratory of Gregory Aune, MD, PhD, of the Department of Pediatrics and the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at UT Health San Antonio.

“We don’t fully understand why some children who are exposed to anthracycline therapy develop these problems with the heart three to four decades later,” said Aune.

Read the full news release.



Share This Article!