[Pulmonary damage after radiotherapy for breast cancer]

Radiation therapy for breast cancer can cause pulmonary damage. This was diagnosed in two patients aged 75 and 57 years respectively. They had different types of radiation pneumonitis. The first patient presented with a so-called bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP), four months after radiation therapy. Characteristic in BOOP are the bilateral and migrating lung infiltrates that are distributed predominantly in the middle and lower lung zones. The second patient developed a pneumonitis that classically was confined to the area of irradiation four months after radiation therapy. The two types of radiation pneumonitis can be treated successfully with corticosteroids. If symptomatic radiation pneumonitis is diagnosed early it can be treated well and than has a good prognosis.