Possibility of radiotherapy-associated cardiovascular side effects in breast cancer patients by modern radiotherapy techniques.

摘要

The importance of radiotherapy in the adjuvant setting in breast cancer is indisputable. Early larger studies proved that women, who were irradiated from the 1950s to the 1970s, had lower life expectancy rates. The increasing rate of mortality in irradiated women was caused by heart diseases, mainly observed in patients with left-sided tumors (1). In women, treated after 1975, those cardiotoxic effects were not observed, supposing that modern 3D radiotherapy techniques allow dose reductions in the heart region.