Very acute cardiac toxicity during BEAC chemotherapy in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation

Cardiotoxicity is potentially the most threatening non-haematological side effect of high-dose CY. We prospectively evaluated the very acute cardiac effects of high-dose CY in 17 adult non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients receiving CY 1500 mg/m(2)/day as a part of BEAC high-dose therapy (HDT). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and plasma natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP, NT-proANP) measurements were performed prior to HDT (d-7) and just after completing HDT (d-2). After the high-dose CY left atrial end-systolic area increased from 15.2 +/- 1.2 to 18.5 +/- 1.4 cm(2) (P = 0.001), left ventricular end-diastolic volume from 136.1 +/- 12.3 to 156.6 +/- 11.1 cm(3) (P = 0.04) and left ventricular end-systolic volume from 67.4 +/- 7.8 to 75.3 +/- 7.1 cm(3) (P = 0.018). However, no significant change in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was observed. At the same time, plasma levels of NT-proBNP increased from 134.9 +/- 53.3 to 547.1 +/- 168.4 pmol/l (P = 0.003) and NT-proANP from 481.1 +/- 105.5 to 1056.6 +/- 193.1 pmol/l (P = 0.001), respectively. To conclude, high-dose CY results in very acute cardiac toxicity characterised by enlargement of the heart chambers in NHL patients previously treated with anthracyclines. This toxicity can be detected with increased concentrations of circulating natriuretic peptides but not with LVEF measurement.