Prevention of Cardiac Dysfunction During Breast Cancer Therapy

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. The modern post-surgery treatment with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy has improved the overall 5-years survival drastically. However, an unwanted effect of the post-surgery treatment is its potentially deleterious effect on the heart resulting in cardiac dysfunction. Angiotensin antagonists are used as part of the heart failure treatment. In smaller studies angiotensin antagonists have shown to have a cardioprotective effect during breast cancer treatment. Sacubitril/valsartan is a potent drug that in addition to an angiotensin antagonist contains a neprilysin inhibitor. Sacubitril/valsartan has proved to be superior to enalapril in chronic heart failure. In this randomized placebo controlled double blind trial we hypothesize that sacubitril/valsartan used concomitantly during anthracycline containing chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment prevents cardiac dysfunction as measured by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). PRADA II is a Norwegian multicenter trial intending to recruit 214 patients and follow them for 18 months with CMR, cardiac ultrasound, blood samples, functional capacity tests and health related quality of life questionnaires.