The risk of radiation-associated heart disease in patients with early breast cancer

2021.09.29 | Graduate School of Health

On Friday 29 October at 14.00, Marie Louise Holm Milo defends her PhD dissertation entitled"The risk of radiation-associated heart disease in patients with early breast cancer".

Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide. The majority of patients are diagnosed in an early stage and adjuvant radiation therapy plays an important role to reduce the risk of recurrence and improve the overall survival. However, thoracic radiation therapy may cause some incidental radiation dose to the heart with subsequent risk of cardiac disease. After the millennium, several changes in the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer patients occurred, both in the systemic treatment and in radiation therapy where CT-based planning was implemented.

In this Ph.D. project from Aarhus University, the risk of cardiac disease is investigated in a cohort of 22,056 breast cancer patients irradiated between 1999 and 2016. In a subgroup of patients treated with CT-based radiation therapy planning, the radiation dose to the heart and cardiac substructures is reported.

In conclusion: For patients irradiated after CT-based planning was implemented, no trend towards an increased risk of cardiac disease within the first 10 years after radiation therapy was seen. In general, the radiation dose to the heart was low and there was no difference in the radiation dose to the heart and cardiac substructures for patients with subsequent cardiac disease compared to patients without subsequent cardiac disease.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in auditorium A (G206-145), Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, entrance G, 8200 Aarhus N. Please read the attached press release for more information.

Contact:

PhD student Marie Louise Holm Milo

Mail: milo@oncology.au.dk 

Phone: (+45) 20962648

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