Evaluate Cardiac Function Using Cardiac MRI and Dosimetric Correlation
Evaluate Cardiac Function Using Cardiac MRI and Dosimetric Correlation
The association between radiation exposure and cardiac disease is well recognized, it is not
 fully understood if there exists an optimal or "safe" radiation dose-volume relationship.
Identification of "safe" dose volume constraints (DVC) for the heart from breast cancer
 radiotherapy would permit maximal oncologic benefit from radiation, identifying which
 patients require more complicated and resource consumptive radiation methods such as
 respiratory-gating or intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and establish patients who need
 targeted follow-up for their long term cardiac risk. Two recent technical developments now
 make it conceivable to identify the dose-volume relationship between heart dose and
 subsequent cardiac event risk: 1. CT based three dimensional conformal radiation delivery
 methods (3DCRT) where the precise radiation dose to any given heart volume is known, and 2.
 Cardiac MRI (CMR) that is more sensitive to prior methods of cardiac evaluation (e.g. SPECT)
 for detecting and measuring cardiac injury.

 An MRI, subject health questionnaire, clinical and dosimetric data will be included in the
 analysis.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Women with node positive breast cancer treated with surgery, anthracycline-based or
 similar cardiotoxic chemotherapy, and regional nodal irradiation between 2000-2007.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Women who have not received anthracycline-based or similar cardiotoxic chemotherapy,
 and regional nodal irradiation between 2000-2007.