AUTHOR=Lemanski Claire , Thariat Juliette , Ampil Federico L. , Bose Satya , Vock Jacqueline , Davis Rick , Chi Alexander , Dutta Suresh , Woods William , Desai Anand , Godinez Juan , Karlsson Ulf , Mills Melissa , Nguyen Nam Phong , Vinh-Hung Vincent 

TITLE=Image-Guided Radiotherapy for Cardiac Sparing in Patients with Left-Sided Breast Cancer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2014

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2014.00257

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2014.00257

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=Patients  with  left-sided  breast  cancer  are  at  risk  of  cardiac  toxicity  because  of  cardiac  irradiation  during  radiotherapy  with  the  conventional  3-dimensional  conformal  technique  (3D-CRT).  In  addition,  many  patients  may  receive  chemotherapy  prior  to  radiation  which  may  damage  the  myocardium  and  may  increase  the  potential  for  late  cardiac  complications.  New  radiotherapy  techniques  such  as  intensity-modulated  radiotherapy  (IMRT)  may  decrease  the  risk  of  cardiac  toxicity  because  of  the  steep  dose  gradient  limiting the  volume  of  the  heart  irradiated  to  a  high  dose.  Image-guided  radiotherapy  (IGRT)  is  a  new  technique  of  IMRT  delivery  with  daily  imaging  which  may  further  reduce  excessive cardiac  irradiation.  Preliminary  results  of  IGRT  for  cardiac  sparing  in  patients  with  left-sided  breast  cancer  are  promising  and  need  to  be  investigated  in  future  prospective  clinical  studies.