Breast cancer is often treated using radiotherapy
Radiotherapy is used either as a sole therapy, alongside breast-conserving surgery or after breast removal
Clinical studies carried out over the past years have revealed that breast cancer radiation after breast-conserving surgery provides additional chances of success; during surgery without subsequent irradiation, women can expect a recurrence rate of about fifty percent.
Radiotherapy in Breast Cancer Treatment
Where radiotherapy is used, however, only five percent of patients experience breast cancer recurrence. About four to six weeks after breast cancer surgery, the radiation can start if no chemotherapy is necessary. Otherwise, radiotherapy is performed after chemotherapy is complete. Breast cancer radiation is performed using a linear accelerator. To spare healthy tissue and more importantly protect vital organs such as the heart and lungs, the position of the patient under the accelerator is crucial. Mammary glands, the fat tissue, the skin and the breast wall should be irradiated as evenly as possible. To achieve this, diagonal radiation fields called tangential fields are calculated for this treatment of breast cancer. In this context, the surgeon generally uses a marker to show the treatment team the relevant and exact location of where the breast cancer was removed from, so that this area can be supplied with a higher dose of radiation. The radiation is calculated individually for each breast cancer patient. The anatomical features of the thorax play a vital part in this process. Images that are used to determine the exact position of the bones and organs are produced in advance using computer tomography. Intelligent technology is used to prevent breast cancer patients from having to hold their breath during radiation and to avoid movements of the thorax: The Radiotherapy Patient System RPS continuously detects the position of the body during the radiation process and can balance respiratory movements automatically to keep the tumor region in the same position.
The careful planning and execution of the radiation as well as optimal positioning help to reduce side effects in Breast Cancer Treatment.
It has been proven that fractionation plays a significant role during breast cancer radiation. This means that it is better tolerated when low individual doses of radiation are provided several times, up to five times per week. To ensure fast positioning and constant quality under the linear accelerator with this frequency of radiotherapy sessions, the optimum position data is adjusted automatically prior to each radiation. The RPS can detect and balance even minimal position differences. Immobilization tools are used to bring the patient back into the right position.
Would you like to have more information about RPS-Sytems or to show the system to your physician? Then send us an email to info@gkteso.de – we will be glad to send you the documents.
