Comparison of various radiation therapy techniques in breast cancer where target volume includes mammaria interna region.

In breast cancer radiotherapy, the internal mammary lymphatic chain is treated in the target volume in a group of patients with high-risk criteria. Because of the variability of the anatomic region and structures in the irradiation field, there are a number of different techniques in breast radiotherapy. While irradiating the target volume, we also consider minimizing the dose to critical structures such as heart, lung, and contralateral breast tissue. In this study, we evaluated the dose distribution of different radiotherapy techniques in patients with left-sided breast cancer who had breast-conserving surgery. A three-dimensional computerized planning system (3DCPS) was used for each patient to compare wide-field, oblique photon-electron, and perpendicular photon-electron techniques in terms of dose homogeneities in the target volume; the doses received by the contralateral breast, heart, and lung; and the coverage of the internal mammary chain. Data from 3DCPS were controlled by the Rando-phantom and thermoluminescence dosimetry. Critical structures were irradiated with acceptable dose percentages in addition to the internal mammary chain with both wide-field and photon-electron techniques. We detected more frequent hot spots in the oblique photon-electron technique than in the other techniques, and this situation necessitated changing the junctions. The wide-field technique was easy to perform and exposed less radiation dose to the heart than photon-electron techniques. In conclusion, we suggest the use of the wide-field technique in breast irradiation when the internal mammary area is in the target volume.