Julia White, MD, director of breast radiation oncology at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center, literally turned radiation treatments upside-down with the development of prone radiation for breast cancer.
Prone radiation meant that White's patients could focus on their breast cancer treatment instead of worrying about how it might affect their heart or lungs.
Traditional radiation treatment is done with women lying on their backs and comes with a potential risk of damage to heart and lung tissue that the radiation beams can unintentionally skim as they treat the breast that lies on top of the chest.
Patients now had another option — a specially designed board that allows women to lie on their stomachs with their breast hanging through an opening in the board. This position keeps the heart and lungs out of harm’s way and enables the radiation to target the breasts.
The Spielman Fund provided the financial backing for White to work with a manufacturer to develop her prone radiation board commercially.
Now available nationwide, the board is effective for most women who are having a lumpectomy to preserve the breast, White says.
“It allows the breasts to fall away from the chest wall,” she says. “Using our center’s expertise in computer modeling for radiation treatment planning, we can distribute the radiation dose through the breast evenly and avoid over- and under-dosing. We can also stay in front of the ribs usually, so we don’t even need to go into the thoracic cavity where the lungs and heart are located.”
And there is another benefit. The accuracy of the beam results in better cosmetic outcomes in the prone versus back position. With traditional radiation therapy, about 60% to 70% of patients have a good cosmetic outcome. Those odds increase to 80% to 90% of women using the prone radiation board.