Radiology and Oncology (Jan 2021)

Deep inspiration breath hold reduces the mean heart dose in left breast cancer radiotherapy

  • Falco Michał,
  • Masojć Bartłomiej,
  • Macała Agnieszka,
  • Łukowiak Magdalena,
  • Woźniak Piotr,
  • Malicki Julian

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2021-0008
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 55, no. 2
pp. 212 – 220

Abstract

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Patients with left breast cancer who undergo radiotherapy have a non-negligible risk of developing radiation-induced cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cardioprotection can be achieved through better treatment planning protocols and through respiratory gating techniques, including deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH). Several dosimetric studies have shown that DIBH reduces the cardiac dose, but clinical data confirming this effect is limited. The aim of the study was to compare the mean heart dose (MHD) in patients with left breast cancer who underwent radiotherapy at our institution as we transitioned from non-gated free-breathing (FB) radiotherapy to gated radiotherapy (FB-GRT), and finally to DIBH.

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