Mechanically-assisted non-invasive ventilation: A step forward to modulate and to improve the reproducibility of breathing-related motion in radiation therapy

Radiotherapy of mobile tumours entails many challenges due to the uncertainties of the target position caused by breathing. Indeed, the breathing amplitude and frequency may deeply and unexpectedly vary from cycle to cycle, as they are subject to deep conscious and unconscious variations. These changes can occur either within a same treatment fraction (intra-fraction variation), or from one day to another (inter-fraction variation). In proton-therapy, the uncertainties in target position are even worsened by the proton range variations within the crossed tissues and the interplay effect (the interferences between the target motion and the spot scanning beam) that can unpredictively distort the dose distribution.
Source: Radiotherapy and Oncology - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Orignal Article Source Type: research