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¹Department of Podology, Kocaeli Faculty of Medicine, Ozone Therapy and Phytotherapy Unit, Kocaeli-Turkey
²Department of Radiation Oncology, Kocaeli Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2022.S1008 Thoracic radiotherapy is frequently applied for the treatment of mediastinal tumors, lymphomas, thymoma, and lung cancers. The incidence of complications following antineoplastic therapies is associated with the incidence of cancers and the rate of prolongation of survival. Cardiotoxicity is one of the most critical complications and may occur during treatment or after years over the treatment period. Clinical pictures progressing into heart failure may occur. Radiation therapy to the thoracic region as well can be cardiotoxic. Major factors that increase the risk of cardiotoxicity in radiotherapy procedures include radiotherapy dose, anatomic regions it is applied to and accordingly the dose affecting the heart. Although cardiac adverse events during radiotherapy have been tried to be reduced by use of modern techniques for cardiac protection such as dividing the total dose among regions, reducing fractional doses, and applying apical or subcarinal block, cardiac risk increases during radiotherapy applied at a total dose of >30 Gy, concurrent or sequential application of radiotherapy and anthracyclines enhances the risk of cardiotoxicity. Late cardiotoxic effects should be kept in mind because early management of these effects may substantially prolong patient survival. Keywords : Cardiotoxicity; chemotherapy; radiotherapy; survival