Ray Mak: The Risk of Cardiac Arrhythmias after Radiotherapy for Lung Cancer

Ray Mak, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, shared on X:

“Just out JACC Cardio Oncology, we intricately map radiation exposure from radiotherapy for lung cancer to different sub-structures of he heart to predict the risk of 5 different classes of cardiac arrhythmias, pointing to possibly distinct pathophys pathways.

Key specific sub-structures at risk included pulmonary veins and coronaries (and atria), with very different dose thresholds! Key question remains is whether the coronary association is due to a ischemia pathway leading to arrhythmia vs. dosimetric surrogate for a conduction sub-structure.

We used AI segmentation tools to help us uncover these connections. Nice example of how collaboration between radiation oncology, EP, cardiology, cardio-oncology , AI scientists drives new insights! The impact of radiotherapy on the conduction system is more complex than we thought…”

Association of Cardiac Substructure Radiation Dose With Arrhythmia: Time to Move Away From Mean Dose

Authors: Gerard Walls and Alan McWilliam

Source: Ray Mak/X