Radiotherapy of the left breast - comparison of treatment using the DIBH respiratory gating technique with the free-breathing technique.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Radiotherapy is a very important part of the treatment of this cancer. As breast cancer patients survive longer, any long-term side effects caused by treatment become increasingly important. The aim of this study is to determine whether deep breath-hold (DIBH) respiratory-gated radiotherapy is superior to free-breathing (FB) radiotherapy in reducing cardiac exposure. The analysis included 50 patients treated in 2022-2023 for left breast cancer who underwent breast-conserving surgery. The obtained data allow us to conclude that DIBH is a more advantageous technique than FB. There is a visible decrease in the average dose to the heart from 3.29±1.77Gy to 1.43±0.54Gy, V20 to the heart from 5.14±4.95% to 0.67±0.81% in favor of DIBH. A slightly smaller difference, but still supporting the DIBH technique, is for the doses received by the left lung, i.e. a decrease in the average value from 7.39±2.21Gy to 7.14±1.9Gy, and in V20 from 15.42±5.17 % to 14.55±3.92%.