Lung cancer radiotherapy tied to higher cardiac mortality
Complications are happening earlier and more often than assumed, researchers say
21st June 2019
High-dose radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer can lead to development of serious cardiac complications and increased mortality, a study suggests.
In a cohort of 748 US patients, over a median follow-up of more than 20 months, 77 patients developed at least one major adverse cardiac event, yielding a two-year cumulative incidence of 5.8%, the researchers said. During this period, 533 of the patients died.
Patients without pre-existing coronary heart disease (CHD) who received a radiation dose of more than 10Gy had