Chest Computed Tomography Findings and Clinicopathological Features among Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Radiation at Ocean Road Cancer Institute

Abstract

Background: Radiation-induced lung changes are major health concerns among patients with breast cancer treated with radiation. The increasing rate of this kind of complication could partly be attributed to the inappropriate irradiation dosage and the recent widespread use of mastectomy plus radiation therapy as the first treatment for women with breast cancer. Even though few studies in Tanzania describe clinicopathological features and treatment of breast cancer, there is a lack of research studies addressing chest Computed Tomography (CT) findings in relationship to clinicopathological features among breast cancer patients treated with radiation at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI), Tanzania's national cancer centre.

Objective: The study was conducted to determine chest CT findings and clinicopathological features among post-irradiated breast cancer patients treated at ORCI.

Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at ORCI's Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, utilizing patient records and diagnostic imaging data. The study comprised breast cancer patients who had completed radiation therapy and underwent chest High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) scans between March 2021 and September 2022. Data analysis involved SPSS version 23, including descriptive analysis for categorical and continuous data. A significance level of p-value <0.05 was set to identify statistically significant results.

Results: The study included 75 breast cancer patients treated with radiations referred for chest CT. The mean age was 58.37 years. Most participants were female (97.3%), aged between 50 and 79 (73.3%), and presented with a dry cough (52.0%). Ground-glass opacity (GGO) was observed in 54.7% of the cases, making it the most common HRCT finding. The use of Cyclophosphamide in combination with other chemotherapy drugs as part of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was significantly associated with 0.22 times lower odds of developing GGO (p-value = 0.01).

Conclusion: Overall, this study highlights post-radiotherapy pulmonary complications among breast cancer patients and the potential influence of Cyclophosphamide on the development of ground-glass opacities.

Recommendation: It is advisable to conduct further prospective research to explore radiation-induced pneumonitis and the potential synergistic effects of specific chemotherapy regimens.