Researchers with the London Regional Cancer Program (LRCP) have come up with a better way to locate breast cancer and target treatment, minimizing the chances of radiation affecting the heart.

Battling breast cancer only to face heart problems later in life can be a reality for women who receive radiation.

But research by Omar El-Sherif, a diagnostic imaging researcher with the LRCP, is literally close to the heart.

"The standard method you kind of have just a snapshot of where the heart is...Now using our more advanced technique you can actually characterize the motion of this patient's heart when they're breathing."

Together with Dr. Stewart Gaede, a medical physicist at LRCP, he's developed an imaging technique called 4D-CT.

Gaede explains "One of the key issues with treating left-sided breast cancer patients with radiation is the proximity of the heart to the high doses of radiation used to treat the breast."

Being able to take into account movement caused by breathing during CT imaging means better accuracy during radiation treatment.

Advances in breast cancer treatment mean women are living longer, and increasingly the challenge is that it can be years after the radiation is completed that heart problems are evident.

On the future impact Gaede says "Studies have shown that we get decreases in profusion - in blood flow - to major portions of the heart such as the myocardium and the left ventricle."

For patients, the procedure takes a bit longer, but that's about all they'll notice.

"This box is placed on the patient's chest and this is an infrared camera that reads these infrared reflectors while the patient is breathing," Gaede says.

El-Sherif adds "So you have a snapshot of your internal anatomy at each position of your breathing cycle."

The technique has become standard practice in London, but the full impact on heart health may only be understood in the years ahead.

"With this information we can potentially cater the treatment plan to each specific patient's breathing cycle and use that to kind of minimize the amount of radiation being deposited to the heart. And hopefully 10-15 years down the road, minimize the risks of cardiovascular disease," El-Sherif says.