e18804 Background: Improvements in survival of cancer patients has led to an increased awareness of the long-term cardiac effects of chemotherapy. American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Clinical Practice Guideline emphasizes the needs of identifying patients with higher risk for cardiovascular toxicity prior to treatment initiation. African American (AA) race has been associated with higher incidence of cardiotoxicity and resultant incomplete adjuvant therapy compared to white patients. Here, we investigate the utilization of various imaging modalities to monitor chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity in a predominantly AA breast cancer population at the safety-net hospital. Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of breast cancer patients (n = 33) who received trastuzumab, doxorubicin, and/or paclitaxel between year 2018 and 2020 at the safety-net hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Patient demographics, clinical characteristics, pathologic variables as well as utilization of echocardiography, echocardiography with global longitudinal strain (GLS), and multigated acquisition scans (MUGA). Results: The majority of patients were AA female (27/33, 81.8%) and the mean age at diagnosis was 52 ± 13.2 years. 11/33 (33%), 24/33 (72.7%), and 20/33 (33.3%) were treated with trastuzumab, paclitaxel, and doxorubicin respectively. Baseline left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was assessed in 32/33 (96.7%) of patients: MUGA 21/32 (65.6%), echocardiography 10/33 (31.3%), and echocardiography with GLS 1/32 (3.1%). 13/32 (40.6%) patients underwent repeated imaging, with the average time between repeat MUGA and echocardiography being 254.3 and 147 days respectively. LVEF decrease of > 10% was noted in 4 patients with repeat MUGA but in none of the repeat echocardiography group. Only 5 patients had echocardiography with GLS over the study period, of which 2/5 (40%) had a drop in GLS in the setting of normal ejection fraction, consistent with occult LV systolic dysfunction. Conclusions: Our study suggests that African American patients at a safety net hospital receive the equivalent level of cardiac surveillance during cancer treatment. However, GLS imaging is underutilized in the detection of subclinical cardiac dysfunction in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Larger, long terms prospective studies are needed to assess the implications of abnormal GLS and progression to clinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction in the AA breast cancer population.
Survival Analysis of Breast Cancer Patients Treated at a Tertiary Care Centre in Southern India
