Prophylactic use of colchicine in preventing radiation induced coronary artery disease

Radiation therapy is one of the primary treatments in fighting breast cancer, one of the most common cancers in the US. One of the dose limiting factors of this therapy is radiation induced heart damage that results from mediastinal radiation. Recently statins, a medication typically used to lower cholesterol levels, have been suggested as a prophylactic treatment to potentially mitigate this process. Similarly, we hypothesized whether colchicine, an anti-inflammatory medication that is presently used in the treatment of gout and pericarditis, might be used to prevent coronary artery disease induced by radiation therapy.

Source: Medical Hypotheses - December 14, 2017 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: T. O'Herron, J. Lafferty Source Type: research