Radiation Therapy of Patients with Cardiac Implantable Devices: Dosimetric Evaluation and Clinical Management

Iris Wang, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, discusses how radiation therapy affects patients with cardiac implantable devices. There have been an increased number of cancer patients with cardiac implantable devices (CIED) who require radiation treatment. Two general rules of thumb in treatment planning and radiation delivery are to minimize neutron contamination and to avoid direct radiation. For treatment sites farther away from the thoracic area, where the CIED may not be detected in the planning CT, it would be beneficial to identify it prior to or at the time of CT simulation.