Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Nov 14:4:327.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2014.00327. eCollection 2014.

Treatment techniques to reduce cardiac irradiation for breast cancer patients treated with breast-conserving surgery and radiation therapy: a review

Robert E Beck  1 , Leonard Kim  1 , Ning J Yue  1 , Bruce G Haffty  1 , Atif J Khan  1 , Sharad Goyal  1
Affiliations
Review

Treatment techniques to reduce cardiac irradiation for breast cancer patients treated with breast-conserving surgery and radiation therapy: a review

Robert E Beck et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Thousands of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year receive breast-conserving surgery followed by adjuvant radiation therapy. For women with left-sided breast cancer, there is risk of potential cardiotoxicity from the radiation therapy. As data have become available to quantify the risk of cardiotoxicity from radiation, strategies have also developed to reduce the dose of radiation to the heart without compromising radiation dose to the breast. Several broad categories of techniques to reduce cardiac radiation doses include breath hold techniques, prone positioning, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and accelerated partial breast irradiation, as well as many small techniques to improve traditional three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy. This review summarizes the published scientific literature on the various techniques to decrease cardiac irradiation in women treated to the left breast for breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery.

Keywords: breast cancer; cardiotoxicity; dosimetry; heart; radiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of (A) free breathing and (B) deep inspiration breath hold plans for a single patient.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Examples of (A) prone breast and (B) external beam APBI plans.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. What are the Key Statistics about Breast Cancer? (2014). Available from: www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-key-stati...
    1. Fisher B, Anderson S, Bryant J, Margolese RG, Deutsch M, Fisher ER, et al. Twenty-year follow-up of a randomized trial comparing total mastectomy, lumpectomy, and lumpectomy plus irradiation for the treatment of invasive breast cancer. New Engl J Med (2002) 347(16):1233–41.10.1056/NEJMoa022152 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wehr M, Rosskopf BG, Pittner PM, Schwenk D, Prignitz R. Heart function during postoperative high-voltage therapy in female patients with left-sided breast cancer. Klin Wochenschr (1982) 60(24):1505–7.10.1007/BF01716103 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gagliardi G, Lax I, Soderstrom S, Gyenes G, Rutqvist LE. Prediction of excess risk of long-term cardiac mortality after radiotherapy of stage I breast cancer. Radiother Oncol (1998) 46(1):63–71.10.1016/S0167-8140(97)00167-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. McGale P, Darby SC, Hall P, Adolfsson J, Bengtsson N, Bennet AM, et al. Incidence of heart disease in 35,000 women treated with radiotherapy for breast cancer in Denmark and Sweden. Radiother Oncol (2011) 100(2):167–75.10.1016/j.radonc.2011.06.016 - DOI - PubMed