Background/objectives: Sodium-glucose-co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have shown benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease outcomes in diabetes patients. Anthracycline therapy is associated with a risk of cardiomyopathy. However, the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors in the prevention of cardiomyopathy and heart failure in cancer patients undergoing anthracycline treatment remains unclear. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the effect of the prevention of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with cancer and diabetes who had received anthracycline therapy.
Methods: We systematically reviewed Medline and EMBASE databases from inception to January 2024 for studies focusing on cancer patients with a history of anthracycline therapy. Eligible studies had to report relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the clinical endpoints of mortality outcomes and the risk of heart failure exacerbation, comparing cohorts with and without SGLT2 inhibitor use.
Results: Our study included four retrospective cohort studies in the meta-analysis (n = 6,708, 24% received SGLT2). There was significantly lower all-cause mortality in the SGLT2 inhibitors group (pooled RR of 0.52, 95% CI 0.35–0.77, I2 64%). However, there were no differences in the risk of heart failure exacerbation (pooled RR of 0.67, 95% CI 0.39–1.14, I2 17%).
Conclusion: Our study found that anthracycline-treated cancer patients using SGLT2 inhibitors experienced lower all-cause mortality compared to the control group. A randomised clinical trial is necessary to further elucidate these findings.
