Radiation Effect Breast Cancer Risk in Some Women

A study showed that women with cancer within the left breast treated with radiotherapy were much more likely to possess cardiac stress test abnormalities years after women who received radiotherapy on their right breast.

In an average of 12 years after radiotherapy, 59% of women with left-sided breast cancer had stress test abnormalities when compared with only 8% of women with right-sided breast cancer. All the women in this study were given radiation therapy after lumpectomy for early breast cancer.

Since the heart is around the left side from the chest, it's likely one's heart unintentionally was subjected to more radiation in women who received radiotherapy for cancer in the left breast. Exposing one's heart and coronary arteries to radiation could cause damage to the heart and in all likelihood explains the stress test abnormalities they found.

It's important to observe that this study looked at women who got radiotherapy between 1977 and 1995. Today, advances in technology are earning the heart and surrounding breast tissue increasingly not as likely to be exposed to radiation. Computers now are utilized to plan radiation treatment that is extremely precise. The pc aims just the right quantity of radiation only at tissue that should be treated. Other new technology gives your radiation oncologist a wider and safer selection of radiation energy sources.

 Together, both of these advances give your radiation oncologist the opportunity to avoid unnecessarily exposing your heart to radiation meant for the breast area. Some radiotherapy equipment actually tracks heart beats and also the movement of your lungs and effectively blocks those tissues from the radiation exposure.

If radiotherapy is part of your treatment plan, ask your radiation oncologist when the technology being used is up-to-date. Speak to your radiation therapy treatment team about how exactly they'll make sure that you get just the radiation therapy required to effectively treatment for breast cancer.

If you have received radiation therapy previously, it's important that your doctor knows your medical history and understands any treatment-related risks you might have. Together, you and your doctor can plan just how to monitor and screen for just about any complications that may happen.