What is Active Breathing Coordinator (ABC)?
Active Breathing Coordinator (ABC), combined with Image Guided Radiation Therapy, allows your radiation oncologist to treat with significantly more precise beams for moving abdominal or chest targets, such as lung, liver and breast cancers.  ABC provides confidence for higher total radiation doses, shorter courses of treatment, and decreased dose to nearby organs, all of which lead to improved treatment outcome. 
Active Breathing Coordinator for Lung cancer

Use of Active Breathing Coordinator for Lung Cancer

Active Breathing Coordinator pauses the patient's breathing at a precise tidal volume and coordinates radiation delivery during this pause.  The usual margin treated around lung cancer is 1-2 cm.  With ABC, the beam size can be reduced, resulting in less damage to lung tissue.
 
Lt Breast treatment set-up with Active Breathing Coordinator
     
It is difficult to avoid the heart with Tangential Beams (High radiation dose shown in red) With deep inhalation, using Active Breathing Coordinator, the heart is totally spared

Use of Active Breathing Coordinator for left breast treatments

A problem associated with conventional left breast radiation treatment is the inclusion of a portion of the heart, in the tangential beams, posing a risk of heart injury.  This is especially important to avoid in patients who have had chemotherapy.  Active Breathing Coordinator (ABC) helps a patient to hold her breath in a consistent manner while receiving radiation. This inhalation increases the separation between the breast tissue and the heart, reducing the heart's exposure to radiation.

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