2004 Volume 43 Issue 11 Pages 1087-1088
Anthracycline, a widely used anti-cancer agent, can elicit irreversible cardiomyopathy called anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy (ACM). In this report, we describe 5 cases of severe chronic heart failure due to ACM effectively treated with the beta-blocker, carvedilol. Their left ventricular function as well as cardiac symptoms were persistently improved after treatment with carvedilol, suggesting that carvedilol may be an effective therapeutic strategy for ACM as demonstrated in other forms of chronic heart failure.