Corrected QT prolongation among chemotherapy: Treated patients, a study of a Romanian center.

e24053 Background: Chemotherapy cardiotoxicity sometimes occurs as QTc prolongation, which may lead to ventricular arrhythmia. We assessed incidence of QTc prolongation among chemotherapy-treated patients. Methods: We enrolled 396 consecutive patients receiving chemotherapy in the Oncology Institute of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 870 ECGs were performed at baseline and every 2 months, for 5 assessments, during 2016. Results: Most patients were diagnosed with gastro-intestinal tumors and received regimens containing more than one drug. Maximum QTc was recorded after 4 months, when we also found the maximum incidence of increased QTc (>470msec), of 3,73% and of increased ΔQTc (>60msec), of 4%. Female gender was associated with a higher baseline QTc=421 msec, ± 26,9 (p=0.02). No particular chemotherapy regimen was proved to significantly increase QTc. Age was associated with higher QTc and is also an independent variable predicting QTc prolongation (for QTc >480msec, p=0.02), as well as increase of ΔQTc (p<0.001). The number of prior chemotherapy lines correlates with baseline QTc (p<0.0001), with QTc prolongation after 2 months (p=0.01) and predicts higher ΔQTc after 2 months (p=0.01), although within normal range. There was no additive effect during all the 5 assessments. Conclusions: Our results confirm QTc prolongation with chemotherapy and a special attention should be paid to previously treated patients and to elderly patients. Key words: chemotherapy, cardiotoxicity, QTc prolongation.