[An evaluation of the cardioprotective action of the preparation ICRF-187 (Cardioxane) during the treatment of breast cancer with large doses of adriamycin].

Twenty females with disseminated breast cancer received courses of polychemotherapy with 21-day intervals. The regimen comprised adriamycin (ADM), cyclophosphamide and 5-fluorouracil in the dose 50, 500 mg/m2, respectively. 30 minutes prior to the treatment the patients were given the cardioprotector cardioxan (1000 mg/m2).

[The cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications of intravital estrogen therapy in middle-aged and elderly patients with prostatic cancer].

Cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications arising as a result of 1-16-year estrogen therapy were evaluated in 105 prostatic cancer patients. The incidence of the complications was higher in those who had pretreatment cardiological or vascular load. The latter caused death in half of the patients.

[Comparative evaluation of the cardiotoxic effects of antineoplastic antibiotics adriamycin and pharmorubicin].

Thirty patients with Grade III breast cancer, a locally common form, were examined to compare the magnitude of the cardiotoxic effects displayed by the antitumor anthracyclic antibiotics adriamycin (15 patients) and pharmorubicin (15 patients). Clinical symptoms of cardiotoxicity developed in 13.3% of the pharmorubicin-treated and in 40% of the adriamycin-treated patients.

[Postradiation pericarditis in lymphogranulomatosis patients].

Postradiation pericarditis was diagnosed in 11 of 52 patients treated for lymphogranulomatosis with radiation applied to enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes. The risk of postradiation pericarditis is greater in cases of high radiation doses (more than 45 Gy) and in patients with postradiation pneumonitis. Postradiation pericarditis can develop both during the exposure and long after radiation therapy; therefore long-term follow-up is required for these patients.

[Clinical aspects and diagnosis of metastatic pericarditis in cancer patients].

Metastatic pericarditis was identified in 74 out of 240 cancer patients suffering from secondary tumor lesions in the heart (30.8%). It involved quick accumulation of exudate which led to grave heart failure due to cardiac tamponade development in 39%.

[Cardiotoxic effect of cytostatics in patients with breast cancer].

Clinical and instrumental (ECG, PCG, ultrasonic cardiography and polycardiography) examination of cardiac activity in 98 breast cancer patients treated at the Center after Cooper established the cardiotoxic effect of 5-fluorouracil, vincristine, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids. 46% of them suffered pain in the region of the heart, tachycardia, extrasystole, atrial flutter and deranged conduction function. Congestive heart failure was observed in 7% only.

[Cardiac alternation in pericarditis with effusion].

Alternation of the heart was revealed in 18 of 74 patients with tumorous pericarditis with effusion (24%). It was found most frequently in patients with a drastically enlarged heart and a large amount of exudate in the pericardial cavity. An electrical, mechanical and mixed character of alternation was encountered in pericarditis with effusion.

[Secondary tumors of the heart (based on autopsy materials in the Oncology Research Center of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR over the period of 1960-1977)].

The autopsy material of the USSR AMS Cancer Research Center for 1960--1977 was studied. Among 3327 patients dying of malignant tumours, secondary tumour involvement of the heart was revealed in 170 (5.1%) cases, in 119 patients the tumour metastasized into the heart, in 51 grew into the pericardium.

[Electrocardiographic characteristics of a secondary tumorous lesion of the heart].

The main electrocardiographic signs of metastasis and spread of malignant tumors to the heart in 123 patients were studied. The most reliable electrocardiographic criterion of tumor metastasis to the heart are signs of a macrofocal lesion with no dynamics of changes characteristic of ischemic heart disease. Spread of a tumor to the heart and micronodal metastasis are characterized by the appearance of signs of microfocal myocardial lesion on the ECG.

[Echocardiography in the diagnosis of exudative pericarditis].

Echocardiography revealed pericardial effusion in 20 patients with various oncologic diseases. Chest X-ray showed effusion only in 5 patients, electrocardiographic signs of pericarditis were found in 12 patients. Echocardiography is an exact and simple method for the diagnosis of exudative pericarditis.