ARCTICA
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Anthracycline-Related Cardiotoxicity: Translational proteomIC biomArkers
IRAS ID
320045
Contact name
Kim Linton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chemotherapy is an important treatment for many types of cancer. We are interested in one particular group of chemotherapy drugs called ‘anthracyclines’. This group includes drugs such as doxorubicin and epirubicin, used to treat cancers including lymphoma, sarcoma, breast cancer and others. Although they can be very effective at treating cancer, they can cause heart damage in a small number of patients. This happens due to heart muscle not pumping as efficiently as it normally would in a process called ‘heart failure’, though it is not completely clear how this happens. Depending on the dose of chemotherapy received, the lifetime risk of this is between 2-16%. Some more patients may develop milder form of heart failure without symptoms. Though uncommon, heart failure can be very serious, and usually cannot be reversed.
We presently have no good way of telling which patients are at risk of heart failure. Currently available blood tests only identify heart failure when it is quite advanced, and are therefore rarely used. This study therefore aims to explore new blood tests for chemotherapy-related heart failure, as well as providing new information on exactly how this process occurs. We hope to develop a reliable marker of early heart damage, which would allow doctors to modify patients’ treatment before irreversible damage is done.
We have previously identified proteins in a laboratory setting with promise as new markers of heart damage. We plan to test a shortlist of these proteins using a simple blood test in patients who are currently receiving anthracyclines (Cohort A), or who previously received anthracyclines (Cohort B) as part of their standard cancer treatment.
We will test the new biomarkers against cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (the gold standard) to look for the earliest signs of heart damage. Participants will be followed up for around 18 months.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NW/0003
Date of REC Opinion
1 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion