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Updated: Feb 25, 2026
Voluntary Breath-hold Technique for Reducing Heart Dose in Left Breast Radiotherapy
Published on: July 3, 2014
Heart position variability during voluntary moderate deep inspiration breath-hold radiotherapy for breast cancer
Paul van Haaren1, Fiere Claassen-Janssen2, Ingrid van de Sande1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Voluntary moderate deep inspiration breath hold (vmDIBH) in left-sided breast cancer radiotherapy reduces cardiac dose. The aim of this study was to investigate heart position variability in vmDIBH using CBCT and to compare this variability with differences in heart position between vmDIBH and free breathing (FB). For 50 patients initial heart position with respect to the field edge (HP-FE) was measured on a vmDIBH planning CT scan. Breath-hold was monitored using an in-house developed vertical plastic stick. On pre-treatment CBCT scans, heart position variability with respect to the field edge (ΔHP-FE) was measured, reflecting heart position variability when using an offline correction protocol. After registering the CBCT scan to the planning CT, heart position variability with respect to the chest wall (ΔHP-CW) was measured, reflecting heart position variability when using an online correction protocol. As a control group, vmDIBH and FB computed tomography (CT) scans were acquired for 30 patients and registering both scans on the chest wall. For 34 out of 50 patients, the average HP-FE and HP-CW increased over the treatment course in comparison to the planning CT. Averaged over all patients and all treatment fractions, the ΔHP-FE and the ΔHP-CW was 0.8±4.2mm (range -9.4-+10.6mm) and 1.0±4.4mm (range -8.3-+10.4mm) respectively. The average gain in heart to chest wall distance was 11.8±4.6mm when using vmDIBH instead of FB. In conclusion, substantial variability in heart position using vmDIBH was observed during the treatment course.
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