Saturday June 29, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Breast cancer patients who receive radiotherapy should expect to have a higher risk for developing heart failure, according to a new study in Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Medical radiation on the chest damages the heart and increase the risk of ischemic heart disease, said Dr. John Gofman, PHD, MD, who was a professor of nuclear medicine.   Radiation treatment is known to increase the risk of death from cardiac ischemia in breast cancer survivors with the tumor on the left breast.

The study led by Anna Liza Valina-Toth from Case Western Reserve University and colleagues shows that about 13% of breast cancer patients who received radiation therapy were later diagnosed with heart failure.  

The study was based on data from the U.S. Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results cancer registries in which 8025 women with breast cancer treated with radiation were identified between 1976 and 2007.

The study also found 51% of outer quadrant breast cancers eventually developed heart failure.  Black breast cancer patients had a 40% higher risk for developing heart failure, compared with other races after adjustment for age, year of treatment, year of diagnosis, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, chemotherapy and use of cardioprotective drugs.

Dr. Golman said that 75% of breast cancer cases have something to do with radiation.  An authoritative organization says that medical radiation and hormone replacement therapy are the two major risk factors for breast cancer.  Radiation used in mammography per se can also induce the development of breast cancer.

One out of eight U.S. women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.  Each year in the U.S., 230,000 American women are diagnosed with the disease, and about 40,000 die annually, according to the National Cancer Institute.   The death rate remains the same over the past decade although new drugs and treatments have been developed to treat the disease.

Breast cancer in many cases is preventable.   Diet and lifestyle are the most important risk factors.  Some dietary factors are known to promote the development of breast cancer and other malignancies and some help delay or inhibit the development.    For instance, observational studies suggest that maintaining high levels of serum vitamin D may help prevent as many as 75% breast cancers. (reporting Jimmy Downs)