Radiothérapie thoracique conformationnelle : asservissement à la respiration

Respiration-gated radiotherapy offers a significant potential for improvement in the irradiation of tumor sites affected by respiratory motion. An increased conformality of irradiation fields leading to decreased complications rates of organs at risk (lung, heart…) is expected. Respiratory gating is in line with the need for improved precision required by radiotherapy techniques such as 3D conformal radiotherapy or intensity modulated radiotherapy. Reduction of respiratory motion can be achieved by using either breath hold techniques or respiration synchronized gating techniques. Breath hold techniques can be achieved with active, in which airflow of the patient is temporarily blocked by a valve, or passive techniques, in which the patient voluntarily breath-hold. Synchronized gating techniques use external devices to predict the phase of the respiration cycle while the patient breaths freely.