Radiation therapy and effects on the heart
I've been told I'll need radiation therapy following a lumpectomy on my left breast (no lymph node involvement). As I've only recently had an aortic valve replacement in my heart, I started to wonder if the radiation could affect it badly because the heart is under the left breast.
I've been distressed to find there's a lot of rigorous research about how heart arteries and valves can be damaged by the radiation. I even found a case study where a woman's artificial heart valve was so badly affected by radiation that it had to be removed and replaced.
It seems there's no 'safe' level of radiation to totally prevent the heart being affected. To be honest, I'm a bit stunned that none of the medical people treating me for the breast cancer, has mentioned this connection. If I'd know it earlier, I would have asked if a mastectomy might have spared me all or at least some of the neeed for radiotherapy.
It's such an important issue that some US cancer centers have a section which combines cardiac-oncology. But I can't find anything here in Australia.
Has anyone else encountered a problem of how their heart might be affected?