Brachytherapy is an essential part of radiotherapy for uterine cervical cancer. The low dose rate (LDR) regimen has been the major technique of intracavitary therapy for cervical cancer. However, there has been an expansion in the last 20 years of high dose rate (HDR) machines using Ir-192 sources. Since 1979, HDR brachytherapy has been used for the treatment of uterine...

PURPOSE: To evaluate changes in expression of cell cycle related genes during apoptosis induced in HL60 cells by X-irradiation to understand molecular biologic aspects in mechanism of radiation therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: HL-60 cell line (promyelocytic leukemia cell line) was grown in culture media and irradiated with 8 Gy by linear accelerator (6 MV X-ray). At various times after irradiation, ranging...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of conventional postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy in the management of supratentorial malignant glioma and to determine favorable prognostic factors affecting survival. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From Sep. 1985 to Mar. 1997, the number of eligible patients who received postoperative radiotherapy completely was 69. They ranged in age from 7 to 66 years (median, 47). Forty-two (61%) patients were...

PURPOSE: This study was designed to demonstrate the potential therapeutic advantage of 3-dimensional (3-D) treatment planning over the conventional 2-dimensional (2-D) approach in patients with carcinoma of the nasopharynx. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The two techniques were compared both qualitatively and quantitatively for the boost portion of the treatment (19.8 Gy of a total 70.2 Gy treatment schedule) in patient with T4....

PURPOSE: This retrospective study was tried to evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients, patterns of failure, survival rates, prognostic factors affecting survival, and treatment related toxicities when non-small cell lung cancer patients was treated by definitive radiotherapy alone or combined with chemotherapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We evaluated the treatment results of 70 patients who were treated by definitive radiation therapy for...

PURPOSE: Although small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has high response rate to chemotherapy and radiotherapy (RT), the prognosis is dismal. The authors evaluated survival and failure patterns according to the prognostic factors in SCLC patients who had thoracic radiation therapy with chemotherapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty nine patients with SCLC had received thoracic radiation therapy from August 1985...

PURPOSE: To evaluate influences associated with radiation treatment planning obtained with the patient breathing freely. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We compared reduction or elimination of planning target volume (PTV) margins with 2-D conventional plan with inclusion of PTV margins associated with breathing with 3-D conformal therapy. The respiratory non gated 3-D conformal treatment plans were compared with respiratory gated conventional 2-D plans...

PURPOSE: To determine the role of pelvic irradiation in stage I or IIA cervical carcinoma with pelvic nodal metastasis after hysterectomy and bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 68 cervical carcinoma patients who were found to have pelvic nodal metastasis at hysterectomy and received pelvic irradiation from 1983 to 1996 at Inje University Seoul Paik...

PURPOSE: Radiation proctitis and radiation cystitis are frequent and problematic late complications in patients treated with radiation for the uterine cervix cancer. Authors tried to find out the better patient's position in high dose rate intracavitary radiation to reduce the radiation dose of bladder and rectum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 13 patients, Foley catheters were inserted to patients' bladder and rectum and...

PURPOSE: The major goal of the therapy in the soft tissue sarcoma is to control both local and distant tumor. However, the technique of obtaining local control has changed significantly over the past few decades from more aggressive surgery to combined therapy including conservative surgery and radiation and/or chemotherapy. We retrospectively analyzed the treatment results of the postoperative radiation therapy...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of electronic portal imaging device through objective compare of the images acquired using an EPID and a conventional port film. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From Apr. to Oct. 1997, a total of 150 sets of images from 20 patients who received radiation therapy in the pelvis area were evaluated in the Inha University Hospital and Severance Hospital....

PURPOSE: This study is intended to understand the sensitometric charac teristics and the emulsion properties of the commercially available CEA TVS film in comparison with the Kodak X-Omat V film. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For this purpose, we have formulated an analytic expression of the characteristic curves for x-ray film exposed to mixed radiation of electrons, photons, and visible light. This mathematical...

PURPOSE: Although many studies have investigated the dosimetric aspects of stereotactic radiosurgery in terms of target volume, the absorbed doses at extracranial sites; especially the lens or thyroid - which are sensitive to radiation for deterministic or stochastic effect -have infrequently been reported. The aim of this study is to evaluate what effects the parameters of radiosurgery have on the...