Left ventricular function in colon cancer patients receiving adjuvant fluoro-folate chemotherapy: An echocardiographic study

Cardiotoxicity has been reported with increasing frequency after 5-FU admin istration. Since 5-FU-based regimens are increasingly used as adjuvant trea tment for resected colon cancer patients, this carries a potential increase d risk of cardiotoxicity. In the present study, we evaluated if fluoro-fola te chemotherapy has any effect on left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in resected colon cancer. Twenty-five resected colon cancer patients receiv ing adjuvant fluoro-folate chemotherapy, were prospectively studied. Both d igitized M-mode and Doppler echocardiography were performed, in order to in vestigate different aspects of LV diastolic function. None of the studied p arameters was influenced by chemotherapy administration. Indeed, values rec orded at the end of the 6 month treatment and 6 months later were not stati stically different from baseline values. This study suggests that the use o f fluoro-folate chemotherapy in otherwise normal subjects carries a very lo w risk of severe cardiotoxicity.