BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Not our arsenic

March 12, 2001 8:00 AM UTC

There is a well documented relationship between the use of arsenic trioxide and a cardiovascular side-effect, prolongation of the QT interval, which can lead to a potentially fatal torsade de pointes-type ventricular arrhythmia. Indeed, this is described in a black box warning in the label for Cell Therapeutics Inc.'s Trisenox arsenic trioxide to treat relapsed or refractory acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

New data published in Blood by researchers at Our Lady of Mercy Cancer Center (New York, N.Y.) suggests that torsade de pointes may occur with more frequency than previously believed, citing three such cases in 19 patients treated with an arsenic trioxide formulation (see B12). In response, CTIC said it has not seen such rates in patients treated with Trisenox, which the company said has a significantly different safety profile in terms of frequency, severity and progression of torsade de pointes than the compound used in the trial...