Body positioning during scans has an impact on radiation received

Prone position--or lying face down--could reduce the amount of radiation received by the heart and lungs in patients undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. A group led by Silvia Formenti, M.D., of the New York University School of Medicine prospectively studied 400 patients--half with left breast cancer and half with right--who underwent two CT simulation scans, one in a prone position and one lying face up. The researchers reported that prone positioning reduced the amount of irradiated lung in all patients and the amount of heart volume irradiated in 85 percent of the patients with left breast cancer. Article