Protect Your Heart with Surface Guided Radiation Therapy

Image of caregiver preparing patient for SGRT.
When fighting left-breast cancer, who is looking out for your heart? We are.

Radiation can be a powerful treatment for breast cancer. But your left breast is very close to your heart. We work to make sure that the radiation treatment you need today does not affect your heart tomorrow.

We use Surface Guided Radiation Therapy, also known as SGRT, a radiation therapy guidance technique that has been shown to reduce radiation exposure to your heart while you’re treated for left-breast cancer. This will protect your heart.

Fight the Cancer, Spare the Heart

When treating cancer with radiation therapy, our goal is to deliver radiation to your breast area while protecting surrounding healthy tissue from exposure and potential damage.

If you have left-breast cancer, we take extra precautions to make sure that your heart receives minimal radiation exposure during your treatment.

SSGRT Helps Us Make Sure Your Heart is in the Right Place

During treatment planning, you’ll lie on your back for 3D images to be taken of your body. We’ll ask you to take and hold a deep breath — usually for 15-25 seconds — so that your breast is as far from your heart as it can be. This is called Deep Inspiration Breath Hold, or DIBH. DIBH will protect your heart during treatment.

Then, during treatment, you’ll take and hold a deep breath in the same way as before. When your breast surface is at the right position, the display lights turn green and the SGRT system turns the radiation beam on.

Using three cameras to monitor thousands of points on your skin, SGRT technology can detect any motion as you hold your breath — side to side, up and down, forward and back and more — with submillimeter accuracy. So if you move out of position, the radiation beam is turned off.

Your cancer is treated. And your heart is protected.

DIBH scan

Proven Safe

A recent study¹ showed that SGRT + DIBH effectively prevented radiation-induced abnormalities in blood flow to the heart. Of the breast cancer patients treated, 0% showed these abnormalities after six months.

This compares to a previous study without SGRT or DIBH, where 27% of patients showed new abnormalities in blood flow to the heart 6 months after radiation therapy².

Appreciated by Patients

Alison Young had her left breast treated with radiation therapy in 2016. Her center in London, UK, used SGRT and DIBH.

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, getting the best type of treatment became my top priority. Knowing that breath holding, as part of the radiotherapy treatment, would significantly – if not completely – reduce the risk of long term damage to my heart was extremely comforting.”

“The SGRT technique made the whole process simple and easy to follow. I feel very lucky to have had access to technology like this during my treatment. If I’d have known the benefits before, I would have felt even more empowered and relaxed during treatment.”

We’re Looking Out for Your Heart

With SGRT, we’re using the latest technology to protect your heart in treating your cancer. If you would like to discuss treatment options, call us at 843-674-2470 or make an appointment.