Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 11, 2026
11:38
Voluntary Breath-hold Technique for Reducing Heart Dose in Left Breast Radiotherapy
Published on: July 3, 2014
47.4K
Operational assessment of tattooless breast radiotherapy using AlignRT surface guidance
Aria Malhotra1, Andrew K H Robertson1,2, Ian Sun3
1Department of Medical Physics, 600 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada.
Technical Innovations & Patient Support in Radiation Oncology
|November 10, 2025
Summary
Surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) offers an effective alternative to traditional tattoos for patient positioning. This new method is as accurate and faster than tattoos, proving beneficial for breast cancer radiotherapy.
Area of Science:
- Radiation Oncology
- Medical Physics
- Cancer Treatment Technology
Background:
- Traditional tattoo-based patient positioning in radiation therapy can cause lasting negative emotional effects for cancer survivors.
- Surface Guided Radiation Therapy (SGRT) presents a non-invasive alternative for patient setup.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate SGRT as an alternative positioning modality compared to tattoo-based methods.
- To assess differences in speed, accuracy, and cost between SGRT and tattoo-based positioning.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study was conducted on two linear accelerators, one with and one without SGRT, for breast cancer patients.
- Setup time and positional accuracy were measured and compared using statistical analysis (Wilcoxon rank sum test).
- Cost projections for both positioning modalities were calculated per fraction and per patient.
Main Results:
- SGRT demonstrated equivalent or superior positional accuracy and setup times compared to tattoo-based setups.
- SGRT was faster for photon treatments (11s faster) and free breathing setups (23s faster).
- No statistically significant differences in positional shifts were observed on pre-treatment imaging.
Conclusions:
- Surface Guided Radiation Therapy is a fiscally feasible and non-inferior option for patient positioning in breast radiotherapy.
- SGRT provides comparable accuracy and improved setup times over permanent tattoos.
