Yes, I wouldn't have expected heart problems from radiation.

Just for the heck of it, I purchased this full 11 page study. It does state that long-term outcome data of IMRT in H&N cancer is limited, that there is great variation in IMRT delivery technique, including target delineation and dose prescriptions, and that its important to confirm that long-term favorable outcomes can be reliably reproduced.

It doesn't break the results down by stage but 85% of patients in the study were Stage III/IV (most of those Stage IV).

I always wonder when I read these studies, how they come up with the survival stats that are in general use. A few studies that I've read really slice and dice the numbers in many different ways producing quite different results for different subsets of the patient population.

When they come up with these often used general stats, do they take the average stats of all the studies done over time and extrapolate that out to the general patient population? Or, do they get data from hospitals? When you read a few of these things, its really clear that general statistics don't mean a whole lot to a specific individual (as has been said on the site many times before).

I do like to think that progress is being made with this disease though. Maybe the tomo-IMRT is another step in that direction.

Connie