Late effects of adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer.

Complications requiring in-hospital treatment were observed in 24 of 221 consecutively treated patients (11%) who were followed from 8 to 42 years after postmastectomy irradiation. There were four sarcomas of the treated chest wall, three squamous carcinomas (two in the esophagus), two angiosarcomas of the swollen homolateral arm, nine chronic ulcers, five respiratory insufficiencies, six pathologic fractures of the radiated shoulder or ribs, two fatal cardiomyopathies, one persisting leukopenia with fatal brain abscess, and one severe neurovascular impairment of the arm. In a comparable group of 394 consecutive postmastectomy patients who were not irradiated, one similar event, a myxosarcoma of an unswollen arm, was observed. Only long-term follow-up can determine the ultimate risks of radiotherapy.