Prospective Long-Term Follow-Up of Pulmonary Diffusion Capacity Reduction Caused by Dose-Dense Chemotherapy in Patients with Breast Cancer

Figure 1

(a) Individual and mean DLCO values measured at 4 time points. A longitudinal general linear model shows a significant effect of time as both a linear and a quadratic covariate (F(1, 87) = 14.68, and F(1, 87) = 10.26, , respectively), indicating significant changes in DLCO and in its trend, i.e., a reduction during DDC until P3 and partial recovery at follow-up. (b) When patients are grouped by the presence of DRDI, the longitudinal general linear model yields a significant interaction between DRDI and both time covariates (F(1, 85) = 7.96, and F(1, 85) = 6.79, , respectively). Therefore, in patients with DRDI, the decrease to P3 and the recovery at P4 were significant, whereas in patients without DRDI, the changes were not significant. Thin pale lines represent individual patients; thick bright lines represent mean values. Significantly lower than P1 at . Significantly higher than P3 at . Abbreviations: DLCO, carbon monoxide diffusing capacity; DRDI, dose-dense chemotherapy-related DLCO injury; P1, prior to DDC administration; P2, after AC; P3, after T; P4, later follow-up.

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