Uncontrolled arterial hypertension in patients with breast cancer and the risk of developing cardiotoxicity with anthracycline-containing chemotherapy

Abstract

Aim. To study of the role of the effectiveness of blood pressure control according to the daily monitoring of blood pressure in patients with triple negative breast cancer with arterial hypertension at risk of developing cardiotoxicity with anthracycline-containing chemotherapy. Materials and methods. The study included 99 breast cancer patients (mean age 48 years [36; 63]) who received chemotherapy including anthracyclines, taxanes and platinum -based agent. Before chemotherapy, patients underwent 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, which revealed masked uncontrolled hypertension. Before and after chemotherapy, echocardiography was performed, including speckle tracking echocardiography in a two-dimensional mode, and the concentration of biomarkers (highly sensitive troponin T and NT-proBNP) was also determined. Patients with breast cancer with masked uncontrolled hypertension (n=12) were the main group of the study, and patients with controlled hypertension (n=17) and patients with normotension (n=70) were the comparison group. Results. After chemotherapy in patients with uncontrolled hypertension, a large degree of decrease in global longitudinal strain (GLS) was recorded, a high incidence of subclinical cardiotoxicity, assessed by the diagnostic criterion of GLS; a larger increase in the volume of the drug and a higher degree of increase in highly sensitive troponin T. In patients with uncontrolled hypertension who received a higher total dose of doxorubicin, the degree of decrease in GLS was statistically significantly greater than in patients with controlled hypertension. Conclusion. Uncontrolled hypertension in patients with breast cancer is unfavorable in terms of the risk of developing subclinical and clinical cardiotoxicity, especially when using high doses of anthracycline. The method of daily monitoring of blood pressure should be used in patients with breast cancer both to detect masked hypertension and to assess the achievement of the target level of blood pressure before anthracycline-containing chemotherapy.

Keywords

• cardio-oncology
• arterial hypertension
• cardiotoxicity
• masked arterial hypertension
• chemotherapy
• breast cancer