It is being reported that certain types of chemotherapy treatments involving a class of drugs known as anthracyclines can damage the hearts of breast cancer patients

It is being reported that chemotherapy given to breast cancer patients may in fact damage their hearts.

Drugs called anthracyclines are a vital component of treatment for breast cancer, but doctors know very well that there is an increased risk that they will weaken the hearts of women who receive them.

Furthermore, there is new research that finds that these drugs are no more effective than safer drug alternatives.

"In the process of curing their breast cancer, we've exposed them to some pretty nasty things. And it's not just one nasty thing, it's a sequence of nasty things," explains Dr. Pamela Douglas, a Duke University cardiologist who is planning research into how to protect these women's hearts.

"This is really coming at you from all sides," says Douglas.

In the world today there are an estimated 2.4 million breast cancer survivors, and nobody knows how many of them now have weakened hearts due to them receiving the certain type of chemotherapy.

Aside from chemo, other forms of treatment, including chest radiation and the associated weight gain that plagues many survivors, is also responsible for an increased risk of poor heart health.

The study is published in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology.