During the last decade or so, strong evidence has emerged that radiation can cause heart disease at the doses that are sometimes received incidentally by the heart during radiotherapy for cancer. The seminar will summarise recent work to characterise radiation-related heart disease and to estimate the magnitude of the risk. These estimates are needed so that the likely benefits from radiotherapy can be balanced against any risk, enabling the optimal course of treatment to be identified for every cancer patient.
Sarah C Darby is Professor of Medical Statistics in the University of Oxford. For her undergraduate degree she studied Mathematics and then did a PhD in Medical Statistics After graduating, she worked at the National Radiological Protection Board and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima before moving to the University of Oxford in 1984. She currently leads a programme of work to evaluate the benefits and risks of treatments for cancer.