Publication in the Journal of Applied Clinical Physics

Schoepen, M, Speleers, B, De Neve, W, et al. Four irradiation and three positioning techniques for whole-breast radiotherapy: Is sophisticated always better?. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2022;e13720. https://doi.org/10.1002/acm2.13720

In this paper, Max and his colleagues looked at the differences in radiation received at three different body positions. The target group consisted of women receiving radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery, without affecting the lymph nodes. The researchers looked at the supine position, the traditional prone position and the crawl prone position developed at UZ Gent. In radiotherapy, as much radiation as possible should be delivered to the target and as little as possible to healthy organs. Different body positions were compared for different radiotherapy techniques, ranging from simple to complex. As such, a nuanced choice for a broad spectrum of hospitals becomes possible. The traditional prone and crawl prone positions proved to be valid alternatives to the common supine position. The greatest advantages for prone positions were found in the reduction on lung dose. For cardiac dose, the differences between the body positions were small, confirming the added value of breathing techniques. The results from this study may be of interest to centres with limited technical resources, for whom a change in body position may compensate for the lack of complex radiotherapy techniques.

The Publication can be accessed via the webpage of the Journal