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Despite improvements in radiotherapy techniques, radiation-induced heart disease remains a long-term risk for patients who received mediastinal irradiation.
Heart disease occurring after irradiation of the mediastinum was first recognized in the 1960s, when long-term survival after radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease became frequent. Pericardial disease, in its various forms, is the most common problem, but some instances of myocardial disease, coronary-artery disease, and valvular sclerosis have also occurred. In recent years, with improvements in the techniques of radiotherapy and with greater use of chemotherapy, cases of heart disease after radiation have been fewer and less severe. However, since pericarditis may develop or become clinically manifest many years after the radiotherapy, new cases do continue to appear.In this issue . . .
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E. William Hancock (1983) studied this question.
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