Breast cancer patient Andree Dennis-Gervais completed radiation treatment at UConn Health recently, with the help of a new breathing technique to protect her heart. (Lauren Woods\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDennis-Gervais underwent a lumpectomy at UConn Health to successfully remove her cancer. Also, to reduce her chance of a recurrence of her disease, she completed chemotherapy, followed by radiation therapy that ended on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n
But during the radiation therapy targeting her left breast\u2019s cancer, located close to her heart, her doctors at UConn Health took a newly available extra precaution to protect her heart health.<\/p>\n
Dennis-Gervais was one of the first patients at UConn Health to use Deep Inspiration Breath Hold technology to reduce the amount of radiation exposure to her heart during treatments.<\/p>\n
Prior to starting her radiation therapy, UConn Health\u2019s division chief of radiation oncology Dr. Robert Dowsett and his team taught Dennis-Gervais how to take a deep breath and hold it for 20 to 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors explained to me that the goal of the deep breath hold technique during radiation treatment was to move my chest wall farther away from my heart muscle to protect it,\u201d says Dennis-Gervais. \u201cIt was news to me that my heart could potentially be exposed to low-dose radiation during my treatments. I had no idea it could affect my long-term heart health.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says at first, it was hard to imagine how the Deep Inspiration Breath Hold technology would work, but once she wore the virtual-reality goggles that were linked to body scanning cameras measuring her body\u2019s position and breathing, it wasn\u2019t hard to learn to take a deep breath and hold it properly. In addition, an indicator visualized in the goggles gauged the rise and fall of her breath and the expansion of her chest.<\/p>\n
Dennis-Gervais says she was reassured by the technology\u2019s advanced safety mechanisms.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you master holding your breath, radiation treatment was easy. If I let go of my breath during treatment, the radiation machine would automatically shut off as a precaution. It was very comforting, especially after becoming aware of the potential side-effects that even low-dose radiation can have upon the heart. The radiation beam would then turn on again, once I took an optimal deep breath and was in the correct body position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis-Gervais says she has been emphasizing to all the women at work and in her life: \u201cMake sure you go for your annual screening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since being diagnosed and undergoing treatment, she feels her normal day-to-day life with her kids has been on hold.<\/p>\n
But now she is done with cancer treatment, she looks forward to getting back to her daily routine. \u201cI look forward to resuming my life with the kids, getting back on that daily treadmill of running to swimming and lacrosse practices,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more about radiation oncology services at UConn Health, go to the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center website<\/a> <\/em>or call 860-679-3225. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new breathing technique served to protect the heart of a UConn Health breast cancer patient during radiation treatment after successful surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":109675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,1868,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-110168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 15:25:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110168"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110175,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110168\/revisions\/110175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/109675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110168"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=110168"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=110168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Deep](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DeepBreathpatient_IMG_4870.jpg\")
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