Monitoring Radiation Induced Cardiac Damage by Blood Markers

Rationale: Radiation induced cardiac toxicity after treatment for intrathoracic tumours is a clinically relevant problem. So far, no clinical prediction models exist for cardiac toxicity. In particular, the relationship between radiation dose parameters and the risk of cardiac toxicity remains to be determined. Clinical prediction models for cardiac toxicity are difficult to obtain, e.g. due to long latency time. Therefore, objective surrogate markers, for cardiac toxicity such as NT pro BNP and hs-TNT, as obtained during and after treatment may be of great value. Objective: The main objective to find a correlation between the rise in NT pro BNP level and the radiation dose given to the heart.