Cardiac Risk Factors in Black Women With Breast Cancer Undergoing Proton Therapy (PBT): Potential for Increased Therapeutic Gain

Abstract

Proton therapy remains a scarce resource in the United States, especially for minority citizens who reside in low socioeconomic areas. Breast cancer (BC) often requires adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) and adjuvant RT is associated with increased cardiac events. PBT results in decreased cardiac exposure for BC. Black patients are more likely to present with advanced breast cancer and are at higher risk for additional cardiac comorbidities when compared to other races. Here we report a single institutional experience of BC patients receiving adjuvant proton therapy in an urban environment. We hypothesize that our black BC population undergoing PBT will carry higher rates of cardiac risk factors than other races and thus would be more likely to benefit from the cardiac-sparing dosimetry of PBT.