Chemotherapy acutely impairs neurovascular and hemodynamic responses in patients with breast cancer

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that doxorubicin (DX) and cyclophosphamide (CY) adjuvant chemotherapy (CHT) acutely impairs neurovascular and hemodynamic responses in patients with breast cancer. Methods Sixteen women (age: 47.0±2.0 years; body mass index: 24.2±1.5 Kg.m−2) with stage II–III breast cancer and indication for adjuvant CHT underwent two experimental sessions, saline (SL) and CHT. In the CHT session, DX (60 mg/m2) and CY (600mg/m2) were administered in 45 min. In the SL session, a matching SL volume was infused in 45 min. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA, microneurography), calf blood flow (CBF, plethysmography) and calf vascular conductance (CVC), heart rate (HR, electrocardiography) and beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) (Finger plethysmography) were measured before, during and after each session. Blood samples (5 mL) were collected before and after both sessions for assessment of circulating endothelial microparticles (EMPs, flow cytometry), a surrog...