BACKGROUND Early stage breast cancer patients are long-term survivors and finding techniques that may lower acute and late radiotherapy-induced toxicity is crucial. We compared dosimetry of wedged tangential fields (W-TF), tangential field intensity-modulated radiotherapy (TF-IMRT) and multi-beam IMRT (MB-IMRT) in prone and supine positions for whole-breast irradiation (WBI). METHODS MB-IMRT,...

PURPOSE To quantify the radiation doses received by the heart and coronary arteries from contemporary tangential breast or chest wall radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS Fifty consecutive patients with left-sided breast cancer and 5 consecutive patients with right-sided breast cancer treated at a large United Kingdom radiotherapy center during the year 2006 were selected. All patients were ir...

Radiation treatment to the left breast is associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality. The deep inspiration breath-hold technique (DIBH) can decrease radiation dose delivered to the heart and this may facilitate the treatment of the internal mammary chain nodes. The aim of this review is to critically analyse the literature available in relation to breath-hold methods, implementat...

PURPOSE To compare non-target tissue (including left-anterior-descending coronary-artery (LAD)) dosimetry of prone versus supine whole (WBI) and partial-breast irradiation (PBI). METHODS AND MATERIALS Sixty-five post-lumpectomy breast cancer patients underwent CT-imaging supine and prone. On each dataset, the whole-breast clinical-target-volume (WB-CTV), partial-breast CTV (tumour-bed + 15 mm...

Abstract Objective To compare volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) with simultaneous tumor bed boost (dpSIB‐VMAT) to the whole breast and regional nodal irradiation (RNI) against standard three‐dimensional conformal radiotherapy plus RNI sequential (3D‐CRT‐seqB). Methods Thirty patients who underwent cancer surgery (BCS) axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) were enrolled. Two plans generate...

Background: We compared 3D-conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) and intensity-modulated (IMRT) planning for left-sided post-mastectomy patients. Aim: To compare the dose coverage of target volume (PTV) delivered to organs at risk (OAR) 3D-CRT IMRT plans. Setting: Department Oncology, central South Africa. Methods: Twenty-six archived CT scans patients with breast cancer were included. The plans...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical feasibility of a Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) (18)F-FDG PET-CT acquisition in apnea and compare the results obtained between these acts of acquisition in apnea and in Free Breathing in the evaluation of lung lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS A pre-clinical phantom study was performed to evaluate the shortest simulated DIBH time according to the minimum...

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the intrapatient tumor position reproducibility in a deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) technique based on two infrared optical tracking systems, ExacTrac and ELITETM, in stereotactic treatment of lung and liver lesions. After a feasibility study, the technique was applied to 15 patients. Each patient, provided with a real-time visual feedback of extern...

To determine the chest wall movement of each patient during deep inspiratory breath hold (DIBH) and expiratory breath hold (EBH) in postoperative breast cancer patients. Postoperative breast cancer patients who underwent CT simulation for 3D radiotherapy treatment planning during December 2012 to November 2013 were included. Before scanning the radio-opaque wire was placed on the surface for br...