Voluntary Breath-hold Technique for Reducing Heart Dose in Left Breast RadiotherapyFrederick R. Bartlett 1, Ruth M. Colgan 1, Ellen M. Donovan 1, Karen Carr 1, Steven Landeg 1, Nicola Clements 1, Helen A. McNair 1, Imogen Locke 1, Philip M. Evans 2, Joanne S. Haviland 3, John R. Yarnold 4, Anna M. Kirby 1
1Department of Radiotherapy, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, 2Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, 3Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit (ICR-CTSU), Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, UK, 4Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, UK
The current priority in breast cancer radiotherapy is to reduce cardiac doses without compromising target tissue coverage. The voluntary breath-hold technique described here is a simple, inexpensive solution to this problem and capable of being instituted widely without the need for specialized equipment.