Pulmonary Function Test Changes Two Months after Breast Radiotherapy

Backgrounds: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death. In Iran, however, there is no detailed program to record cancer prevalence, according to the reports from several centers; this cancer is the most common type of cancer in Iranian women. Radiotherapy is one of breast cancer treatment modalities, which improves local control followed by an increase in the survival. However, breast radiotherapy would have several complications on the lung. One way to investigate the pulmonary complications is the use of a pulmonary function test or spirometry. In this study, we evaluate spirometry changes during breast radiotherapy. Methods: To obtain the effect of absorbed dose on the pulmonary function test of patients with breast malignancy, these tests and physical examination were done before and two months after the end of the treatment. Individuals’ information was obtained through a standardized and researcher made the questionnaire and the results obtained from all subjects were analyzed. Raw data were entered into SPSS version 17 software. Correlations test, paired t-test, 2-Independent-Samples T-test, Mann – Whitney U and significance levels were used. Results: the age of the patients was between 34-75 years (mean age of 54.60 years). The results showed no significant correlation between the volume of irradiated lung and spirometry parameters, so with the increased volume of the lung, we didn’t find any significant decrease in pulmonary tests (0.05 p-Value). The changes of spirometry parameters after 2 months of therapy (FEV1 / FVC / FEV1/FVC) were analyzed and showed no statistically significant difference. Studies revealed that there is no significant difference in the volume of the irradiated lung in both sides (0.05 p-Value). Conclusion: The radiotherapy of the breast is causing impaired pulmonary function test. However, with considering normal tissue tolerance doses during planning we would expect lower lung complications.