The Role of the EKG in Anticancer Phase I Drug Development

The research plan includes a retrospective review of the chart of past UT MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) patients and the experience in treating them.

All studies analyzed will be Phase I clinical trials.

Analysis is designed to collect information on the number of and timeframe within which ECGs are performed on these trials. Data on adverse events and serious adverse events, dose modifications based on ECG changes, attribution to drug, incidence and types of ECG changes specifically QTC prolongation as well as their influence on study procedures like dose limiting toxicities (DLTs) in dose escalation phase of the studies.

Study conducted using clinical records of patients treated on Phase I protocols in the MDACC Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. The demographic data to be collected from patients whose charts will be analyzed will include variables such as age, gender, primary cancer, stage of the disease, performance status, treatment characteristics (i.e., number and type of prior therapies), disease status, adverse events, laboratory data (i.e., complete blood count/differential/platelets, tumor markers), and treatment outcomes.

The analysis will allow identification and descriptive analysis of the occurrence of cardiac events in the phase I population and will help define the role of protocol required EKGs in their detection.