Do you refer patients to cardiology if they have no history of cardiac disease but will be receiving XRT with high mean doses to the heart?

Great question! Yes, we are starting to refer patients to cardiology who have Stage III NSCLC or LS-SCLC and are receiving high-dose radiation therapy. Trying to tease out whether its heart dose or central tumor location, or some combination of the two, that confers a poorer prognosis is challenging...

For breast cases, its less common but in patients that have higher heart doses, I will discuss a referral to cardiology; we have a cardiac oncology program which makes it easier but in general, referral to cardiologist is considered particularly in patients with higher heart doses and longer life ex...