Lung radiation treatment is at the unique intersection of the two leading causes of death: cardiovascular disease and cancer.
While advanced lung cancer carries a poor prognosis, recent data shows improvement with the 2-year relative lung-cancer specific survival  increasing from 26% in 2001 to 35% in 2014. This improvement is usually attributed to newer targeted therapies to cancer driver mutations.
However, some question if it may also be due to better cardiac sparing with more modernized radiation treatment techniques.
 While we have usually prioritized cancer control over late toxicity for patients, these improvements in survival rates renews a concern for the late effects of thoracic treatments, especially cardiac toxicity.

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