Breast Cancer: Radiation Therapy
Dr. Marcio Fagundes, Medical Director of Radiation Oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, says breast cancer can be divided in two categories. One of them is when they are only radiating the breast, because the lymph nodes are negative for the cancer, therefore there is no involvement for lymph glands.
In those cases they can have the patient laying prone, face down. The breast droops from the body with gravity, they compress the other breast away from the area of radiation, and that is called prone breast radiation. Some of its benefits are that they minimize any kind of exposure of the heart and the lung, and it is only applicable to patients who do not need to treat the lymph nodes.
