Patient-Level and Endpoint-Specific Clinico-Dosimetric Analysis of the Cardiac Base as a Mediator of Radiation Cardiotoxicity in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Dose to the heart base was associated with increased mortality and an increased pooled cardiac event rate. Accounting for endpoint-specific clinical covariates, only select constituent substructures of the heart base were associated with CEs and no substructures were independently associated with survival. Together, these findings are suggestive of possible interplay between the constituent base substructures in their mediation of radiation cardiotoxicity.