The role of MDCT in assessment of pleuro-pneumonic changes after breast cancer radiotherapy

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and is the second cause of cancer deaths among women after lung cancer. These patients have most often been treated with combination of surgical resection, radiation therapy, hormonal and chemotherapy. Post operative radiotherapy plays an important role in the management of breast cancer and can reduce local and regional recurrence, thereby improving outcomes. Radiation therapy modalities used in the pri¬mary management of breast cancer are divided into two types: those aimed to irradiate the breast/chest wall alone (local) and those aimed to irradiate the breast/chest wall as well as the regional lymph nodes. Both techniques have side effects on the underlying lung. The severity of RP varies from radiographic findings with no clinical symptoms to life threatening disease requiring hospitalization. Radiotherapy may be complicated by radiation pneumonitis, the early stage of which occurs one to three months after treatment characterized mainly by ground glass opacities and consolidation related to radiation portal. The late phase also known as fibrosis develops six months after the