Ensuring accurate delivery of radiation is especially important for left-breast cancer. Your heart is close to your breast. In one study, 27% of patients showed heart abnormalities six months after their radiation treatment.2
But there is a treatment option that can help: AlignRT, used alongside a technique called Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) can help protect your heart.
9 out of 10 of US News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals for Cancer” use AlignRT.
Learn MoreEnsuring accurate delivery of radiation is especially important for left-breast cancer. Your heart is close to your breast. In one study, 27% of patients showed heart abnormalities six months after their radiation treatment.2
But there is a treatment option that can help: AlignRT, used alongside a technique called Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) can help protect your heart.
9 out of 10 of US News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals for Cancer” use AlignRT.
Learn MoreIf you need radiation therapy, it’s important to ensure the radiation reaches the right place, while avoiding vital organs such as the heart. To do this, a variety of methods are used to ensure you are in the right place before and during treatment. These methods range from tattooing your body and taking additional X-Rays to using devices that limit movement of certain areas of the body.
AlignRT® is a new technology which ensures that you are positioned correctly before and during treatment. By tracking your skin surface in real time using 3D camera technology, AlignRT® helps make sure that you are in the intended position, with high accuracy, and often with fewer bothersome devices, providing both comfort and safety. If you move even a millimeter, radiation can be automatically shut off until you are back in the correct position. AlignRT® can be used across all cancer sites and can eliminate the need for tattoos or skin marks for certain patients.
AlignRT® is available in 80% of the US News & World Report “Best 50 Hospitals for Cancer”.
Radiation therapy has been shown to be a highly effective treatment for breast cancer, but the left breast is close to the heart, which leaves the heart at risk of radiation exposure. This has been shown to sometimes lead to post-treatment heart conditions¹ like heart disease and heart attacks. The good news is, new techniques are becoming more widely adopted to help reduce these risks, such as treating a patient while they are holding their breath and using AlignRT®.
To support your conversation with your doctor, please feel free to use our downloadable discussion guide.
Radiation therapy has been shown to be a highly effective treatment for breast cancer, but the left breast is close to the heart, which leaves the heart at risk of radiation exposure. This has been shown to sometimes lead to post-treatment heart conditions¹ like heart disease and heart attacks. The good news is, new techniques are becoming more widely adopted to help reduce these risks, such as treating a patient while they are holding their breath and using AlignRT®.
To support your conversation with your doctor, please feel free to use our downloadable discussion guide.
Drawing marks on a patient’s skin, or marking dots with a permanent tattoo has been a common step in the process of radiation therapy.
The role of the marks and tattoos was historically to allow your radiation team to know exactly where to treat each day. These small tattoos and skin marks can provide alignment to the desired treatment area and are used as a guide at each of your radiation treatment visits. On average, patients receive three to four marks.
In certain cases, AlignRT can eliminate the need for tattoos and permanent markers.
View MoreTattoos and permanent markers – there may be another option “When I heard I would be receiving SGRT (surface guided radiation therapy, with AlignRT®), I was incredibly relieved. My scars were already fading but a tattoo would have remained, and I wanted to move on with my life.” “For me and I’m sure many women, I wanted to put the cancer behind me, so not having to look at a tattoo every day is a big positive.”
Read MoreZagar et al. Utility of Deep inspiration breath-hold for left sided breast radiation therapy in preventing early cardiac perfusion defects – A Prospective Study. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2017
Marks et al. The incidence and functional consequences of RT-associated cardiac perfusion defects. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2005 Sep 1;63(1):214-23
Widely Used, Clinically Proven
Over 1,700 Vision RT clinical systems are deployed worldwide, including in 80% of the top 50 US News “Best Hospitals for Cancer”. Over 65 clinical studies using Vision RT’s AlignRT® technology have been published.
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