Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
Government Funding Lapse
Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.

The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov.

Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at opm.gov.

The Cardiac Radiation Therapy Sparing for Thoracic Cancers, HEARTS Trial

Trial Status: active

This clinical trial evaluates the heart-related side effects associated with magnetic resonance-guided adaptive radiation therapy (MRgART) using heart (cardiac) substructure-sparing image segmentation, compared to standard linear accelerator (LINAC)-based radiation therapy, in patients with thoracic cancers. Although radiation therapy is effective in shrinking tumors, it can also have harmful effects on organs near the tumor. One of those organs that can be negatively affected by radiation therapy is the heart. Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays, particles, or radioactive seeds to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. MRgART is a form of radiation therapy that allows the care team to watch the tumor in real time during each session using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and adjust the radiation treatment plan right before or even during the session if the tumor or organs have moved or changed, which may protect healthy parts of the body, like the heart. In this trial, MRgART is used with artificial intelligence-generated heart substructure images, which allows the care team to evaluate and control the amount of radiation delivered to smaller cardiac structures. LINAC is a large machine that generates high-energy x-rays to image and treat cancer based on a unique treatment plan designed just for each person. A LINAC uses a 3 dimensional x-ray image to help line up tumors before each treatment. This imaging uses a small amount of radiation to make sure the treatment is aimed correctly. MRgART used with specialized cardiac substructure-sparing image segmentation may result in lower doses of radiation delivered to smaller cardiac substructures, resulting in fewer cardiac side effects, compared to standard LINAC-based radiation therapy, in patients with thoracic tumors.