This study demonstrates that irradiated cardiac volumes can significantly be reduced in left-sided breast cancer patients using DIBH technique for postoperative tangential radiotherapy. Moreover, the technique is safe and feasible in daily routine.

Use of different CT scanning protocols leads to variations of up to 20% in the HU values. This can result in a mean systematic dose error of 1.5%. Specific conversion tables and automatic CT scanning protocol recognition could reduce dose errors of these types.

Radiation exposure of organs at risk can significantly be reduced for breast cancer patients using the DIBH technique. If radiotherapy of the internal mammary lymph nodes is considered necessary, DIBH may be the preferable technique.

The delineation of a restricted area provides the lung mass calculation in patients treated with tangential fields. DIBH reduces ipsilateral lung dose by inflation so that less tissue remains in the irradiated region and its efficiency is supported by a decrease of NTCP.

The aim of this study was to detect risk factors for febrile neutropenia (FN) in patients with testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT). In this retrospective cohort study at the Medical University of Graz, we included 413 consecutive TGCT patients who received adjuvant or curative treatment with cisplatin‐based chemotherapy. FN occurred in 70 (16.9%) of 413 patients. In univariable logistic regression, higher age (odds ratio (OR) per 5 years = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.02–1.35, P = 0.022), reduced performance status (PS) (OR = 2.73, 1.47–5.06, P = 0.001), seminomatous histology (OR = 2.19, 1.26–3.78, P = 0.005), poor IGCCCG risk class (OR = 4.20, 1.71–10.33, P = 0.002), and prior radiotherapy (pRTX) (OR = 8.98, 2.09–38.61, P = 0.003) were associated with a higher risk of FN. In multivariable analysis adjusting for age and risk classification, only poor PS (OR = 2.06, 1.05–4.03, P = 0.035), seminomatous histology (OR = 2.08, 1.01–4.26, P = 0.047), and pRTX (OR = 7.31, 1.61–33.17, P = 0.010) prevailed. In the subgroup of seminoma patients (n = 104), only pRTX predicted for FN risk (OR = 5.60, 1.24–25.34, P = 0.025). Five of eight seminoma patients with pRTX developed FN (63%), as compared to 22 FN cases (23%) in the 96 seminoma patients without pRTX (P = 0.027). The eight seminoma patients who received pRTX had significantly lower pre‐chemo white blood counts (4.7 vs. 6.5 G/L), neutrophil counts (3.2 vs. 4.3 G/L), and platelet counts (185 vs. 272 G/L) than patients without pRTX (all P < 0.0001). TGCT patients with a reduced performance status or who had been previously treated with radiotherapy have an increased risk for neutropenic fever during chemotherapy.