Abstract

The goal of radiation therapy treatment increases as the breathing motion decreases, which then will lead to desirable and accurate conformal dose distributions for mobile lung cancer tumor. Twelve healthy volunteers of age ranges between 18-63 years, (5 females and 7 males) were randomly selected for the study in the breathing training methods using free breathing and video biofeedback breathing. The free breathing patterns of subjects without external intervention varied considerably. It can also be observed that the patterns of breathing for each subject were not always consistent or constant with respect to time. However, video biofeedback generally controlled the variability in the breathing amplitude. The subjects, on average, breathed deeper than normal (that is, compared with free breathing) and the video mentoring helped them to maintain constant amplitude better than the free breathing method. It is concluded that the video biofeedback appeared to be generally superior to the free breathing technique in terms of its better control over the reproducibility of the baselines, amplitudes and frequencies and might produce stable breathing patterns for patients during the radiation therapy treatments of non small cell lung cancer.

Key words: Non small cell lung cancer, respiratory motions, 3D-conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, breathing monitoring, free breathing, video biofeedback.