Cardiac toxicity in breast cancer patients

To asses cardiac toxicity post radiotherapy in left cancer breast patients with different fractionations.

This is a prospective randomized study conducted at Kasr El-Ainy Center of Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine (NEMROCK). Cardiological assessment using RTOG toxicity criteria was done for left sided breast cancer patients after at least five years of conformal radiation therapy. There were two arms of radiation, conventional (50Gy/25sttt/5 Ws) and hypofractionation (42.5 Gy /16 fractions /3 1/5 weeks).

Thirty patients were included in each arm. After a median follow up of 62 months (range 60 to 72), cardiac dysfunction developed more in the conventional arm but was insignificant (P value =0.36). Grade I & II toxicity was 83.3 vs 70% and grade III was 3.3% in the hypofractionated arm only. The rate of localregional tumor relapse at 5 years was similar (3.3%).

Hypofractionated radiotherapy decreased cardiac toxicity though not statistically significant, however it is more cost effective and time consuming.

breast cancer, cardiac toxicity, hypofractionation, Egypt.