Some centers have special tables that women lie on face-down with holes for the breast to hang through. That allows radiation to be delivered just to that tissue rather than the wider chest area that gets irradiated when a woman lies face-up on a table.
Women need to tell any doctor treating them about radiation they have received in the past. It may mean they should avoid diagnostic tests that use radiation and instead have ultrasounds and MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, whenever possible, Slosky said.
Some places are starting to use electronic medical records to track radiation exposure over a patient’s lifetime, so the cumulative dose is known regardless of who ordered what test and when.
“I’d like to have a personal record like a personal dosimeter” for each patient, Slosky said. “Then you’d know” what risks they face and what tests are safe for them in the future.
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