If you lie down on the couch and put your hand over your heart, you’ll feel your chest rise and fall with each breath. It seems trivial, but the movement of lungs expanding and contracting can drastically change radiation treatment options for patients with lung cancer.
As these patients breathe, the tumor in their lung moves along with the surrounding tissue, sometimes causing radiation to miss the tumor entirely and instead blast healthy cells with its toxic rays. For many physicians, this problem can determine whether or not a patient even receives radiation therapy – but not if Laleh Kardar has anything to do with it... more
http://www.egr.uh.edu/news/201403/phd-works-optimize-radiation-treatment