Trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity in patient specific iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is over expressed in 25% of breast cancer cases, conferring increased risk for cancer aggressiveness. Therapeutic advances have improved breast cancer survival, resulting in a growing population at risk for complications of anticancer therapies. Trastuzumab (TRS) - an anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody - is widely used to treat HER2+ breast cancer. TRS yields improved breast cancer related outcomes, including a near 50% reduction in recurrence and 30% reduction in mortality. Benefits are offset by risk for cardiotoxicity: 10-15% of patients treated with TRS develop cardiomyopathy; 2-4% develop clinical heart failure. Cardiac injury is augmented when TRS is given together with other cardiotoxic chemotherapies such as anthracyclines. This dataset contains patient specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CMs) from HER2+ breast cancer patients with clinical evidence of cardiotoxicity (n=18) and those without cardiotoxicity (n=5). Calcium transients and RT-PCR of calcium signaling genes were performed for the first 3 patients with and without cardiotoxicity.