{"id":109716,"date":"2016-03-02T09:41:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T14:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=109716"},"modified":"2017-01-26T14:42:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:42:06","slug":"close-to-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/03\/close-to-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Close to the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting radiation treatment for breast cancer can make you feel vulnerable. Sitting in a machine with radiation pointed directly at your chest, you have to trust that the doctor knows what he or she is doing, that the x-rays are aimed right, that the machine is properly calibrated \u2026 and then you just sit perfectly still.<\/p>\n

But what if you could have some control over the process?<\/p>\n

\"Radiation<\/a>
Radiation oncologist Dr. Dowsett at the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health. (Lauren Woods\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health, division chief of radiation oncology Rob Dowsett and his colleagues are using a new technique that gives breast cancer patients some agency in their radiation treatment. And they\u2019re taking better care of the patient\u2019s heart in the process.<\/p>\n

Using the technique, called Deep Inspiration Breath Hold, patients can help control the accuracy and timing of their own radiation dose. The patient takes a deep breath of specific depth before the radiation machine turns on. Doing this correctly can increase the distance between the heart and the breast by a centimeter or two, lowering the amount of radiation hitting the heart by as much as 50 percent.<\/p>\n

Sixty-two-year-old Jeryl Dickson was one of the first patients at UConn Health to use the technique, from late 2015 through early February of this year. Her doctors, including Dowsett, prescribed a course of radiation therapy to make sure there were no lingering cancer cells remaining after a lumpectomy removed her breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Radiation treatment of breast cancer can be very effective, eradicating tumor cells hiding in the chest wall. But breast cancer survivors have a heightened risk of heart disease that may show itself years later. Ironically, the heart disease stems from the radiation that originally saved their lives. Radiation is a type of light, and like visible light, it has a tendency to reflect and scatter. Just as even the sharpest spotlight has blurred edges where it blends into shadow, even the best-aimed medical radiation beam occasionally scatters into tissue outside of the tumor it targets. Sometimes it hits the heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worry about heart attacks down the road, 10 to 15 years after radiation treatment of cancer in the chest. We also worry about inflammation on the outside of the heart in the short term,\u201d says Dowsett. \u201cWe don\u2019t exactly know how the radiation damages the tissue, but it definitely seems to accelerate damage to blood vessels. It can also cause scarring and fibrosis damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does the distance between the heart and the chest wall vary from person to person, but a patient can intentionally increase that distance by controlling her breathing using the Deep Inspiration Breath Hold.<\/p>\n