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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Not all breast cancer patients face the same heart risk from radiation. A large Korean study found that left-sided breast radiotherapy significantly raises the risk of ischemic heart disease — but mainly for women who already have 3 or more cardiovascular risk factors. For lower-risk patients, the difference between left- and right-sided RT was negligible.
For breast cancer patients, the side of the chest that receives radiation may matter more than previously thought — but only for some women. A retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open, drawing on data from over 23,000 Korean women treated between 2002 and 2018, found that left-sided breast radiotherapy (RT) raises the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) significantly — but the elevated risk is concentrated among patients who already carry a heavier cardiovascular burden.
Women with 0 to 2 baseline cardiovascular risk factors showed largely overlapping IHD incidence curves regardless of which side received radiation. But once patients had 3 or more risk factors, the gap widened meaningfully, pointing to a clear interaction between RT cardiotoxicity and pre-existing metabolic and cardiovascular conditions.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: These findings support a personalized, risk-adapted approach to breast RT — prioritizing aggressive heart-sparing techniques and proactive cardiovascular management for high-risk patients, while reassuring lower-risk women that laterality alone may not significantly affect their cardiac outcomes.
