Cardiovascular Toxicities of Radiation Therapy

As cancer survival outcomes improve, there is a growing focus on survivorship and long-term morbidity after cancer treatment. In particular, there has been concern about the long-term effects of radiotherapy on cardiac function. In this review, we discuss the cardiac effects of radiotherapy in the context of potential confounding factors, examine the potential parameters of interest when studying and modeling cardiac injury, highlight current treatment techniques to minimize radiation to the heart, and consider future areas of improvement and study.