Trial Information

Self-Gated Breath-Hold Technique for Helical Tomotherapy in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Feasibility Study

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a disease that often presents as an unresectable
tumor. As a result, radiotherapy is the main standard of treatment. Unfortunately,
radiotherapy is limited by several factors, including that the lung can move up to 4 cm
between inspiration and expiration. As a result, a radiation oncologist often has to widen
his treatment field to include for this motion. This leads to greater side effects for the
patient. Two techniques that are being explored to improve the tumor control of
radiotherapy and to minimize side effects to normal tissues in NSCLC treatment include
breath-held gating and tomotherapy. Breath-held gating will allow the investigators to
treat patients at the right moment in their breathing cycle consistently - minimizing the
normal tissue exposed to radiation. In addition, both gated breathing and tomotherapy will
allow the investigators to create a more refined tumor volume treated and exclude more of
the normal tissues. Consequently, they hope these methods will prove to be a better way to
treat patients with non-resectable NSCLC.