Should breathing adapted radiotherapy also be applied for right-sided breast irradiation?

Methods

For fourteen right-sided breast cancer patients, 3D-conformal (3D-CRT) RT plans (i.e., forward IMRT) were calculated on free-breathing (FB) 3D-CRT(FB) and vmDIBHCT-scans, for local- as well as locoregional breast treatment, with and without internal mammary nodes (IMN). Dose volume parameters were compared. Results : For local breast treatment, no relevant reduction in mean lung dose (MLD) was found.

For locoregional breast treatment without IMN, the average MLD reduced from 6.5 to 5.4 Gy ( p p p p p = 0.07) was also found. Conclusions : Breathing adapted radiation therapy in left-sided breast cancer patients is becoming widely introduced. As a result of the slight reduction in lung dose found for locoregional right-sided breast cancer treatment in this study, a slightly lower risk of pneumonitis and secondary lung cancer (in ever smoking patients) can be expected.In addition, for some patients the heart dose will also be reduced by more than 0.5 up to 2.6 Gy.

We therefore suggest to also apply breath-hold for locoregional irradiation of right-sided breast cancer patients.