Lung cancer treatment could affect the heart

Radioactivity of the heart from
radiotherapy of lung cancer treatment is increasing mortality rates. Exposing heart to radiation during treatment of lung cancer may kill the organ.

Some tumours are very close to the heart, higher dose of radiotherapy to this part of the body increases the risk of early death. During radiotherapy, some radiation will hit the heart because it is very close to the lung and this have negative effects on it

Researchers analysed many patients, looking at where in the heart there was radiation and how long the patients survived. They identified that the top of the heart is very sensitive to radiation than the body of the organ.

The researchers carried out a high-resolution, normal-tissue dosimetric analysis, this identify regions in the heart that correlated with poorer survival. The result confirmed that radiation affects the heart.
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