Cardiac-sparing radiation therapy using positioning breast shell for patients with left-sided breast cancer who are ineligible for breath-hold techniques.

Purpose: Patients with left-sided breast cancer (LSBC) are at increased risk of cardiac morbidity from adjuvant breast radiation therapy (ABRT). Breath-hold (BH) techniques substantially reduce the radiation received by heart during radiation therapy for LSBC. However, a subset of patients with LSBC are ineligible for BH techniques due to an inability to breath-hold or because of other comorbidities. To reduce radiation to the heart, we routinely use a custom-made breast shell for the treatment of patients with LSBC who are ineligible for BH techniques. This study evaluates the dosimetric impact of using a breast shell for patients with LSBC undergoing ABRT.

Methods And Materials: Sixteen consecutive patients with LSBC who failed BH and underwent ABRT using a breast shell during the period of 2014 to 2016 were identified. Treatment was planned using field-in-field tangents with a prescribed dose of 42.5 Gy in 16 fractions. Comparisons between plans with and without a shell were made for each patient using a paired test to quantify the sparing of organs at risk (OARs) and target coverage.

Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the planning target volume of breast coverage. A statistically significant improvement was observed in sparing the heart, left ventricle (LV), and ipsilateral lung (-value < .001). Plans with the shell spared OARs better than the no-shell plans with a mean dose of 2.15 Gy versus 5.15 Gy (58.2% reduction) to the heart, 3.27 Gy versus 9.00 Gy (63.7% reduction) to the LV, and 5.16 Gy versus 7.95 Gy (35% reduction) to the ipsilateral lung. The irradiated volumes of OARs for plans with and without shell are 13.3 cc versus 59.5 cc (77.6% reduction) for the heart, 6.2 cc versus 33.2 cc (81.2% reduction) for the LV, and 92.8 cc versus 162.5 cc (42.9% reduction) for the ipsilateral lung.

Conclusions: A positioning breast shell offers significant benefit in terms of sparing the heart for patients with LSBC who are ineligible for BH techniques. It also can be used as a simple cardiac-sparing alternative in centers without BH capability.