Expression profiling of anthracyline-induced cardiotoxicity

Whole blood RNA from women with, and without, chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity were profiled to identify possible biomarkers of sensitivity to heart failure. RNA was analyzed by PaxGene stabilization and purification, DNAse treatment, NuGen labeling, Affymetrix U133 plus 2 microarray analysis. Four groups of women were identified. The main effect was for women with chemo-induced heart failure (Group A) compared to women with a history of chemo, but no heart failure (Group B). To identify transcripts that might be generally associated with heart failure, women with breast cancer, but prior to chem (Group C) with normal ejection fractions, were compared to women who did not have breast cancer, but had heart failure for unrelated reasons (Group D).