Breast Cancer Lung Late Effects

Through improved early detection and treatment, the number of long term breast cancer survivors continues to increase. There are now 2.8 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S. Florida alone adds over 9,000 women to the survivorship pool each year. Most receive radiation treatment (RT) of the affected breast and chest wall to reduce risk of recurrence. Even with advanced radiation techniques for dose conformality to minimize exposure of the highly sensitive lung, 14% of breast cancer patients treated with radiation develop clinical pulmonary toxicity, with 4% overall experiencing high grade clinical toxicity. Early diagnosis and intervention to mitigate lung radiation toxicity is increasingly important for the long term care of these survivors. The investigators' goal is to better identify breast cancer patients at high risk for experiencing severe pulmonary toxicity requiring medical intervention, provide a means to identify toxicity early on, and tailor treatment and/or early intervention on a per-patient basis.

Sex

Female

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Women who are at least 18 years of age.
* Women with Stage II or higher primary breast cancer and who are scheduled to receive conventional X-ray RT (n=30) or proton therapy (n=25) to the breast and chest wall.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients not willing or able to submit to repeat chest CT scans and blood draws.
* Pregnant women.
* Patients who have previously had radiation treatment where any portion of the lung received greater than 5 Gy of radiation exposure.
* Women with bilateral breast cancer or metastatic disease to sites near the chest where additional radiation exposure to any portion of the lung of greater than 5 Gy is anticipated.
* Women with allergic reaction to all common CT contrast agents.