Abiraterone and heart failure

[NLondon43]

Hi all

My. husband has had to go on Abiraterone earlier than we thought as the 6 sessions of chemo failed to do anything for his bone mets. We’re aware that med leaflets have to list every possible side effect but the Abi leaflet says 1 out of 10 people will get heart failure when taking it!!! Is this really the case, should we be buying a defibrillator - or are we misreading the leaflet?

[Tall_Allen]

You are misreading it. 1.9% taking abiraterone had Grade 3 or 4 cardiac failure vs 0.3% taking placebo. So, it is a very rare side effect.

[NLondon43 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thank you for your reply TA, that makes sense. It would be interesting to know how many people had Grade 1 or 2 HF, presumably enough to amount to the 10% mentioned in the leaflet?

[Tall_Allen in reply to NLondon43]

No. Cardiac failure all grades was 2.3% for abiraterone vs 1.0% for placebo - still a rare side effect. This is from the FDA-approved package info.

accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatf...

Where is your leaflet coming from?

[Lezzers]

Hi NLondon

I can't answer your question about Abiraterone but hopefully I can help with the heart failure issues. My husband has had HF since 2012 long before he was diagnosed with cancer, however his HF has worsened since his condition, whether that's down to HT/RT or catching COVID depends on who we're talking to!

First buying a defibrillator isn't as easy as it sounds, there's lots of do's & don'ts with them i.e pads have to be changed regularly, so I would research that thoroughly & get expert advice before buying one. Also it won't help with HF which is a progressive condition, a defibrillator is used to (hopefully) restart the heart in the event of a cardiac arrest due to an arrythimia. My husband has an ICD fitted (implantable cardiac defibrillator) because of a previous cardiac arrest.

There are lots of new meds around now that are very effective at controlling HF symptoms & extending life but all meds carry risks themselves & comorbidities always make things complicated.

As you're in the UK can I suggest you phone prostate cancer UK, they were incredibly helpful when my husband was first diagnosed & you could also talk to the BHF nurses regarding the HF issue. The BHF have a group on HU and you should be able to find their number on there, if not let me know & I'll find it for you.

The only other thing I would say is just because HF is listed as a side effect it doesn't mean your husband will get this but there are degrees of HF from mild to severe, HF simply means that the heart isn't pumping enough blood round to meet the body's needs and that's where the meds help. My husbands HF has been severe, mild & now back to severe again but even severe we still have a reasonable lifestyle.

Hope this helps.

[NLondon43 in reply to Lezzers]

Thank you for your reply Lezzers, this is useful, as you say, HF is a broad term and presumably the 10% of the people that have some level of HF will fit within the Grade 1 and 2.

[slpdvmmd]

Abiraterone causes fluid retention. So if you have heart failure or at risk fluid overload could result which could exacerbate existing failure or push you over into failure. Risk overall is low.

[j-o-h-n]

google.com/search?q=you+got...

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Sunday 06/18/2023 10:11 PM DST