title: Could erlotinib treatment lead to acute cardiovascular events in patients with lung adenocarcinoma after chemotherapy failure?
abstract: Erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor and tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is a targeted drug that was approved for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancers and pancreatic cancers. Targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors are known to have cardiotoxic effects. However, erlotinib does not have a statistically proven effect of increasing acute cardiovascular event (ACE) risk. Preclinical studies showed that beta agonist stimulation among rats that were administered erlotinib led to cardiovascular damage. Thus, there would be an aggregate effect of erlotinib on ACE, although it is not thought to be a cardiotoxic drug itself. In this paper, we present two non-small-cell lung cancer cases that developed ACE under erlotinib treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Tulay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kus
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gokmen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aktas
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Alper
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sevinc
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet Emin
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Kalender
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Celaletdin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Camci
keywords: EGFR; erlotinib; lung cancer; myocardial infarction