Reduction of radiation pneumonitis by V20-constraints in breast cancer

Abstract Introduction Adjuvant local-regional radiotherapy (LRRT) is routinely recommended for breast cancer patients. It is well known being related to pulmonary side-effects. We studied post-RT radiological changes on X-ray and CT, and correlated the findings with Quality of Life (QoL), common dosimetric factors and co-variates. The results were compared with a previously reported cohort of 137 irradiated women. Methods 88 women underwent chest X-ray and CT pre-and 4-5 months after 3-D planned LRRT, minimizing the dose to the ipsilateral lung to V20 13, V20, V30 and mean dose were calculated and QoL was assessed before and 4 months after RT. Results The use of dose-volume constraints significally reduced moderate-severe radiological changes on chest X-ray compared with our earlier study (Chi square trend test: p 13 correlated independently with radiological changes on CT (logistic regression: p = 0.04; ROC area: 0.7). The Co-variates smoking habits, age, chemotherapy, endocrine or trastuzumab therapy did not influence the outcome on multivariate analysis. QoL changes in physical function, i.e. fatigue, dyspnoea were not detected but there was a trend for a worse recovery after chemotherapy in patients with high V13 (Spearman Rank Correlation: p Conclusions The use of dose-volume constraints significantly reduced post-RT radiological changes on chest X-ray in LRRT for BC. The lung changes on CT were also generally limited when we used this strategy and was not always picked up on chest X-ray. Variation in V13 alone was correlated with occurrence of lung changes on CT.