Apollo Cancer Centre Kolkata Showed a New Way to Treat Breast Cancer

News Desk, News Nation 360 : Apollo Cancer Centre Kolkata implements the ‘Deep Inspiratory Breath Hold’ (DIBH) technique with the use of real-time position management (RPM) system to treat left-sided breast cancer patients. This new technique will help protect the heart during radiotherapy. Excess radiation dose to the heart while treating left-sided breast cancer patients can increase the risk of cardiac toxicity and reduce the patient’s life span due to cardiac complications. Normally ‘Deep Inspiratory Breath Hold’ (DIBH) is one such technique, which has been shown to reduce the radiation dose to the heart and thus reduce the risk of cardiac side effects. In this technique, a patient needs to hold their breath for a few seconds after taking deep inspiration and during that time the radiotherapy is delivered. Sharing his thoughts on the new

technique, Dr Animesh Saha, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, said that they at Apollo Cancer Centre, Kolkata, use the DIBH technique with real-time position management (RPM) system. This RPM system will help to trace the respiratory movement of patients and allow a set threshold of respiratory movement for radiotherapy. The radiation beam will only be on when the patient’s breathing is within that particular threshold of respiration and the beam will be off when the respiratory movement gets above or below the set threshold. This respiratory gating using RPM system enables pushing the heart away from the radiation field, precisely in a well-controlled, automated manner and thus

reducing the radiation dose to heart”. Radiotherapy is an indispensable weapon in breast cancer treatment. Most breast cancer patients who are treated with curative intent need treatment with radiotherapy; usually after surgery. Radiotherapy has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence and improve survival. This radiotherapy becomes technically difficult while treating left-sided breast cancer patients due to the presence of a heart on the left side of the chest.

Pic : Courtesy

Report : Anustup Kundu