We need to revisit a prior post, so I can qualify what I said. On my June 22nd post, I mentioned the high incidence of changes in the carotid arteries in patients who received radiation years earlier. But I didn't provide any details.
In the post, I shared some data presented by Dr. Iyad Daher, a cardiologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, on the incidence of carotid artery disease in survivors who had received radiation therapy to the neck 20 years earlier.
The findings were from a survey-type prevalence study (and not a prospective controlled study) of only 57 patients seen at MDAnderson Cancer Center who had received neck irradiation between 1 and 20 years ago. Since the study took place at a tertiary research cancer center, the patients were a more select group and not representative of the general population of post-radiation patients.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that we need to pay attention to the issue of post-irradiation carotid artery disease.
My shortened and simplified past post highlights a key warning for Healthy Survivors: Find out the details of a report or study and how the findings might be related to your personal situation -- if they relate at all -- before drawing any conclusions.
In my next post I'll explain why I jumped on the study despite its great limitations.
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