Recent publications have suggested that imatinib (Glivec) may be cardiotoxic. We have therefore assessed the largest study on the agent performed in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours, randomising a daily dose of 400 mg versus 800 mg. 946 Patients were entered, 942 patients received at least one dose of imatinib. The median time on treatment was 24 months. A total of 24,574 exposure months could be analysed. We could not identify an excess of cardiac events in the study population. In 2 patients (0.2%) a possible cardiotoxic effect of imatinib could not fully be excluded. The current analysis of a large randomised prospective study could not confirm previous suggestions of imatinib induced cardiac toxicity.

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doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2007.01.018, hdl.handle.net/1765/36488
European Journal of Cancer
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Verweij, J., Casali, P., Kotasek, D., le Cesne, A., Reichard, P., Judson, I., … Blay, J. Y. (2007). Imatinib does not induce cardiac left ventricular failure in gastrointestinal stromal tumours patients: Analyis of EORTC-ISG-AGITG study 62005. European Journal of Cancer, 43(6), 974–978. doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2007.01.018