| Purpose: The evolution of radiotherapy techniques for breast cancer treatment has greatly improved survival outcomes but its impact is yet to be fully understood. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in breast cancer survivors who underwent radiation therapy with modem techniques.;Patients and Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted utilizing data from Rush Cancer registry. It involved patients between the ages of 30 and 75 years, diagnosed with left breast cancer who received radiotherapy from 2003-2013. The primary endpoints were diagnosis of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and heart failure. Chi-Square and binary logistic regression were used to determine the association between cardiac risk factors and morbidity end points. The significance level was set at P <0.05 and analysis was conducted with SPSS 23.;Results: Out of 597 patients, 7.5% were identified with cardiac endpoints (3.5% CAD, 2.5 MI and 1.5% CHF). Smoking was significantly associated with the occurrence of CAD (p-value- 0.006), diabetes mellitus was significant for myocardial infarction (p-value- 0.001) and smoking and diabetes mellitus were significant for the event of heart failure (p-value -0.003 and 0.044 respectively).;Conclusions: Modern radiation techniques have maximally diminished the exposure of radiation to the heart as compared to older techniques. However, careful stratification and long term follow-up patients with greater risks for developing cardiovascular diseases should be emphasized.;Abbreviations: CAD- coronary artery disease, MI- myocardial infarction, CHFcongestive heart failure. |
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