Background: The accelerated development of novel cancer therapies necessitates a thorough understanding of the associated cardiotoxicity profiles, due to their significant implications for the long-term health and quality of life of cancer survivors. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the association between cardiotoxicity and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatments using a hospital medicines usage database in England. Methods: An observational study based on a retrospective design using real-world data from the UK DEFINE database was performed. Monthly secondary data of 40 shortlisted drugs from April 2017 to July 2022 were extracted. Results: The cardiology drug that was associated with most oncology drugs was apixaban. Atezolizumab, bevacizumab, nintedanib, osimertinib, paclitaxel, pembrolizumab, gemcitabine and vincristine were all mostly associated with apixaban, which indicated association with atrial fibrillation. Afatinib, erlotinib and methotrexate were mostly associated with atenolol, hence suggesting the association with ischaemia or hypertension. Docetaxel and epirubicin were associated with verapamil, which indicated association with arrhythmia or hypertension. Conclusions: From the correlation and regression analyses, it can be concluded that hypertension was the most associated cardiovascular disease with the 20 shortlisted oncology drugs. The findings of this study have provided a better understanding of the association between each NSCLC–Cardio drug pair.
Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a predominant cause of oncological mortality in the United Kingdom. There is a diverse spectrum of therapeutic options available, such as chemotherapies, targeted therapies and immunotherapies, which have significantly advanced patient prognoses. However, despite these advancements, there is an escalating concern regarding the potential cardiotoxic effects associated with these treatments. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the association between non-small cell lung cancer treatments and cardiotoxicity. Methods: A pharmacovigilance study was conducted utilising the UK Yellow Card System. The proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and reporting odds ratio (ROR) were calculated to detect signals. Results: Among the 56 shortlisted NSCLC drugs, the total number of adverse events reported was 128,214 with 6133 reports being cardiovascular adverse reactions. Among all the drugs analysed, alectinib demonstrated the highest ROR and PRR values, indicating the strongest signal for potential cardiovascular adverse events. Conclusions: This result was comparable to previous studies which also detected a signal of alectinib related to cardiovascular events using the WHO pharmacovigilance database, VigiBase. However, clinical studies demonstrated that alectinib largely improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival in patients. Therefore, it is important to continue monitoring the real-world use of alectinib, so that a benefit–risk balance can be maintained.