Left ventricular function in colon cancer patients receiving adjuvant fluoro-folate chemotherapy: an echocardiographic study.

Cardiotoxicity has been reported with increasing frequency after 5-FU administration. Since 5-FU-based regimens are increasingly used as adjuvant treatment for resected colon cancer patients, this carries a potential increased risk of cardiotoxicity. In the present study, we evaluated if fluoro-folate chemotherapy has any effect on left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in resected colon cancer. Twenty-five resected colon cancer patients receiving adjuvant fluoro-folate chemotherapy, were prospectively studied. Both digitized M-mode and Doppler echocardiography were performed, in order to investigate different aspects of LV diastolic function. None of the studied parameters was influenced by chemotherapy administration. Indeed, values recorded at the end of the 6-month treatment and 6 months later were not statistically different from baseline values. This study suggests that the use of fluoro-folate chemotherapy in otherwise normal subjects carries a very low risk of severe cardiotoxicity.

Colon cancer in pregnancy: report of a case and review of the literature.

Most colon cancer cases occur in patients over 50 years of age, although about 3% of colorectal cancer patients are younger than 40. During pregnancy the incidence of this neoplasm is estimated to be 0.002%. To date only 32 cases of colonic cancer arising above the peritoneal reflection during pregnancy have been described in the literature. We report another such case, stressing the need for constant alertness on the part of physicians in the presence of abdominal pain and/or distension, a palpable abdominal mass, rectal bleeding and/or weight loss during pregnancy. In fact, the reportedly poorer prognosis of this cancer in pregnant patients is mainly due to the fact that the initial symptoms of the malignancy are usually attributed by the patient, but also by physicians, to normal pregnancy.