Irreversible Heart Failure Related to Adjuvant Anastrozole in a Patient with Breast Cancer

Adjuvant hormonal therapy plays a major role in the treatment of estrogen and/or progesterone receptorpositive early stage breast cancer (BC). In this case report, we present a postmenopausal patient who had no known history of heart disease and was diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive stage IIIA breast cancer one year ago. She was treated with adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy followed by letrozole. Because of letrozole-induced joint pain, her medication was switched to anastrazole 1 mg/day. After two months of treatment with anastrozole, the patient developed heart failure and anastrazole was discontinued. Despite discontinuation of anastrazole, no improvement was seen in the ejection fraction. Aromatase inhibitors should be used carefully in patients with BC who have a cardiac disorder and care should also be exercised in cases of combination with other cardiotoxic drugs such as trastuzumab.