Table 4.
Typical modern radiotherapy organ doses for heart, lung and oesophagus in systematic reviews of breast cancer radiotherapy published during 2015–2020.
| Organ | Years of radiotherapy | Number regimens/laterality of cancer | Regions irradiated |
Organ doses* Average/range |
Reference | Table/Figure in reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole heart | 2003–2013 | 45 right 357 left |
Right, all regimens Left without IMN Left + IMN |
3.3 4.2 8.4 |
0.4–21.6 <0.1–23.0 0.7–28.6 |
Taylor 201515 | Table 1 Fig. 3 |
| Whole heart | 2014–2017 | 32 right 196 left |
Right whole breast Left whole breast |
1.9 3.6 |
0.2–8.8 0.1–18.7 |
Drost 201857 | Table 1 |
| Both lungs combined | 2010–2015 | 218 right + left combined |
Partial breast Breast/chest wall Breast/chest wall + axilla/SCF Breast/chest wall + axilla/SCF + IMN |
1.6 5.6 7.3 8.6 |
0.3–5.1 0.2–13.1 2.2–12.1 3.0–12.1 |
Aznar 201820 | Fig. E4 |
| Whole oesophagus | 2010–2020 | 89 right + left combined |
Partial breast Breast/chest wall Breast/chest wall + SCF/axilla/IMN |
0.2 1.8 11.4 |
0.1–0.4 0.1–10.4 1.1–29.3 |
Duane 202121 | Fig. 3 |
Abbreviations: SCF supraclavicular fossa; IMN internal mammary node
*
Average and range of reported regimen-specific doses for radiotherapy to different target regions. Each regimen-specific dose is the average of the mean organ doses in individual patient CT plans for the regimen.