Avoiding Late Cardiac Effects of Radiation of Treatment of Breast Cancer by Simple Respiratory Maneuvers

Abstract : The second year, also the final year, of this contract is for completing the software development of the patient position control system and then performing phantom testing and patient testing at both CT-simulator where the patient's treatment is planned and at the treatment unit where the treatment is delivered. The software development has achieved all the goals: an efficient marker recognition algorithm has been developed and the user interface for the position control module has been enhanced by providing real-time plot of marker positions and by implementing automated point capture procedures. Moreover, a database and the associated browser have been created to handle the patient data in a network environment to make data available both at the simulator and at the treatment unit. Phantom test of the overall accuracy of the system has been conducted at CT-simulator with satisfactory results. Significant efforts have also been made to experiment in making smaller hollow hemispherical markers that can be more accurately placed on patient's skin surface and yet do not interfering with the radiation treatment. The planned tests using both phantom and real radiation patients were not conducted due to the unexpected delay in installing the system in the treatment room. For this reason, a no-cost extension was filed and approved.