Clinical factors affecting breath‐hold performance for left‐sided breast cancer patients

This study highlights the importance of addressing patient-reported pain and anxiety in achieving optimal breath-hold performance during DIBH treatments. While factors such as age and English proficiency did not significantly impact breath-hold metrics, pain and anxiety were associated with impaired reproducibility and reduced time within tolerance. These results suggest that targeted interventions, such as pain management strategies, additional coaching, or supportive devices to increase patient comfort, may improve patient outcomes and clinical efficiency for anxious patients or those in pain. DIBH remains a feasible and effective technique for patients regardless of age or native language in the patient cohort we investigated.