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cardiotoxic breast cancer meds: air pollution increases cardiac problems

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  A recent study found that women with breast cancer who were on cardiotoxic chemotherapy (anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab) had worse cardiac remodeling and function if they had subsequent exposure to air pollution (see  breast cancer air pollution dec cardiac function JAMA2025  in dropbox, or doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52323)   Details : -- 580 female patients were included in this longitudinal prospective cohort study using data from the Cardiotoxicity of Cancer Therapy randomized clinical trial done at multiple sites     -- this trial enrolled women diagnosed with breast cancer between July 1, 2010, and November 1, 2018, from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. All participants were initiating anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab     -- air pollution exposure assessment, which was done prior to chemotherapy: three-year average census tract–level concentrations of fine particulate matter with diameter of 2.5 μ...
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Digitoxin for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction?

A recent study found that patients taking digitoxin who had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction had a decrease in the composite of death from any cause or hospital admission for worsening heart failure, in the DIGIT-HF study (which apparently is short for the Digitoxin to Improve Outcomes in Patients with Advanced Chronic Heart Failure trial): see  chf HFrEF digitoxin helps NEJM2025  in dropbox, or DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2415471)   Details -- 1212 patients in this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial from 65 sites in Austria, Germany, and Serbia -- patients with chronic heart failure who had a left ventricular ejection fraction of 40% or less and a New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class of III or IV, or a left ventricular ejection fraction of 30% or less and an NYHA functional class of II, were randomized to receive digitoxin or matching placebo in addition to guideline-directed medical therapy (all patients had received evidence-based th...
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