Objective To compare the difference in ischemic heart disease (IHD) incidence between left and right breast cancer treated with post-op radiation therapy.Methods We retrospectively reviewed electronic database of breast cancer patients treated in our cancer center from October 2006 to December 2011.Clinical data were recorded including clinical features,radiation fraction,and IHD.Statistical analysis was performed to compare the difference in IHD incidence between left and right breast cancer.Results Age on diagnosis was significantly associated with IHD (P ＜ 0.05).Compare to younger patients (≤60),the increased hazard ratio of IHD in older patients (＞60) was 3.84.The left breast cancer patients had greater incidence of IHD with the increased hazard ratio of 1.57 although this difference did not reach statistical power (P ＞ 0.05).No patients got IHD in the intensity-modulated radiation therapy group.Conclusions Left-side breast cancer patients may have more probability to get IHD after thoracic radiation therapy compared to right-side patients.We recommend that left-side breast cancer patients should be treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy to spare heart if they receive prophylactic radiation therapy after surgery.

Autophagy extensively exists in eukaryotes, which utilizes lysosomes to degrade the damaged organelles or proteins, maintain the stability of the intracellular environment and provide energy. It can also participate in the growth, proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells through autophagy-related genes and signaling pathways. Radiotherapy is one of the main treatments for cancer, whereas tumor cells often have radiation resistance, which reduces the clinical efficacy. Previous studies have demonstrated that autophagy is associated with the radiosensitivity of tumor cells, but the conclusions are different. In this article, different effects of autophagy upon the radiosensitity of tumor cells were reviewed.