Could erlotinib treatment lead to acute cardiovascular events in patients with lung adenocarcinoma after chemotherapy failure?

• Published in: OncoTargets and therapy Vol. 8; pp. 1341 - 1343
• Main Authors: Kus, Tulay, Aktas, Gokmen, Sevinc, Alper, Kalender, Mehmet Emin, Camci, Celaletdin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01-01-2015; Dove Press; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Cardiovascular diseases; Care and treatment; Case Series; Complications and side effects; Development and progression; Drug therapy; EGFR; Erlotinib; lung cancer; myocardial infarction; Non-small cell lung cancer; lung cancer; erlotinib; EGFR; myocardial infarction
• ISSN: 1178-6930; 1178-6930
• DOI: 10.2147/OTT.S84480

Erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor and tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is a targeted drug that was approved for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancers and pancreatic cancers. Targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors are known to have cardiotoxic effects. However, erlotinib does not have a statistically proven effect of increasing acute cardiovascular event (ACE) risk. Preclinical studies showed that beta agonist stimulation among rats that were administered erlotinib led to cardiovascular damage. Thus, there would be an aggregate effect of erlotinib on ACE, although it is not thought to be a cardiotoxic drug itself. In this paper, we present two non-small-cell lung cancer cases that developed ACE under erlotinib treatment.