title: Lower mean heart dose with deep inspiration breath hold-whole breast irradiation compared with brachytherapy-based accelerated partial breast irradiation for women with left-sided tumors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For left-sided breast cancer, radiation to the heart is a concern. We present a comparison of mean heart and coronary artery biologically effective dose (BED) between accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) and whole breast irradiation with deep inspiration breath-hold technique (DIBH-WBI).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 100 patients with left-sided, early-stage breast cancer were identified. Fifty underwent single-entry catheter-based APBI and 50 underwent DIBH-WBI. The heart, left anterior descending/interventricular branch, left main, and right coronary artery were delineated. BEDs were calculated from APBI treatment plans (34 Gy in 3.4 Gy twice daily fractions) and for 4 separate plans generated for each DIBH-WBI patient: 50 Gy in 25 fractions (50/25), 50/25 + 10/5 boost, 40/15, and 40/15 + 10/5 boost.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BED to the heart and coronary vessels were statistically significantly higher with APBI than with any of the DIBH-WBI dose/fractionation schedules.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For women with left-sided early-stage breast cancer, DIBH-WBI resulted in statistically significantly lower mean BED to the heart and coronary vessels compared with APBI. This is likely due to increased physical separation between the heart and tumor bed afforded by the DIBH-WBI technique. Long-term assessment of late effects in these tissues will be required to determine whether these differences are clinically significant.
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Emma B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Holliday
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Steve M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kirsner
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Howard D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Thames
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Bryan E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Christopher L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Electronic address: ebloom@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Elizabeth S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Bloom
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D062485:Breath Holding; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000528:radiation effects*; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans; D001239:Inhalation; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D058958:Organs at Risk / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011832:Radiation Injuries; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D011897:Random Allocation; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D000069584:Unilateral Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*