Because radiation therapy requires such precise targeting, even the tiny movements caused by breathing, swallowing, and blood flow can throw off the radiation beams and lead to tissue damage. To solve this problem, respiratory gated treatment employs computer imaging to map radiation treatment, so that the dose of radiation is modified to accommodate changes in the shape of the tumor caused by the patient's breathing or swallowing. (Without respiratory gating, doctors typically radiate the entire area that the tumor moves through as the patient breathes, which causes radiation to be delivered to healthy tissue.)
Sometimes called target motion management, this brand-new therapy increases the success of treatment for tumors in the breast near the lung or heart.
