Longitudinal changes in the carotid arteries of head and neck cancer patients following radiation therapy: Results from a prospective serial imaging biomarker characterization study

Radiation therapy (RT) is an integral part of the treatment of head and neck cancer [1]. Most patients require treatment to the cervical lymph nodes adjacent to the carotid arteries, which most often cannot be excluded from the RT volume. This increases the risk for accelerated atherosclerosis, carotid artery stenosis and subsequent transient ischemic attack (TIA) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) [2,3]. The long latent interval of several years from RT to the development of carotid artery stenosis makes it difficult to identify patients who will develop adverse outcomes [4,5].

Source: Radiotherapy and Oncology - March 9, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Efstratios Koutroumpakis, Abdallah Sherif Radwan Mohamed, Peter Chaftari, David I. Rosenthal, Dorothy Gujral, Christopher Nutting, Serageldin Kamel, Mohamed A. Naser, Peter Kim, Roland Bassett, Clifton D. Fuller, Elie Mouhayar, MD Anderson Head Neck Radia Tags: Original Article Source Type: research