PURPOSE: It has been reported that all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) can inhibit glioma growing in vitro. However, clinical trials with ATRA alone in gliomas revealed modest results. ATRA has been shown to increase radiosensitivity in other tumor types, so combining radiation and ATRA would be one of alternatives to increase therapeutic efficacy in malignant gliomas. Thus, we intended to know...

PURPOSE: Quality of life in patients with cancer may be influenced by various kinds of variables, such as personal, environmental, and medical factors. The purpose of this study was to identity the influencing factors on the quality of life in patients with cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and forty seven patients, who were taking medical therapy or following up after...

PURPOSE: To develop the respiration simulating phantom with thermocouple for evaluating 4D radiotherapy such as gated radiotherapy, breathing control radiotherapy and dynamic tumor tracking radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The respiration monitoring mask (ReMM) with thermocouple was developed to monitor the patient's irregular respiration. The signal from ReMM controls the simulating phantom as organ motion of patients in real-time. The organ and...

PURPOSE: In this work we designed and made MPBP (Multi Purpose Brachytherapy Phantom). The MPBP enables one to reproduce the same patient set-up in MPBP as the treatment of the patient and we tried to get an exact analysis of rectal doses in the phantom without need of in-vivo dosimetry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dose measurements were tried at a point of...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the contralateral breast dose using a virtual wedge compared with that using a physical wedge and an open beam in a Siemens linear accelerator. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The contralateral breast dose was measured using diodes placed on a humanoid phantom. Diodes were placed at 5.5 cm (position 1), 9.5 cm (position 2), and 14 cm (position 3) along...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of surgical clips and scars in determining electron boost field for early stage breast cancer undergoing conserving surgery and postoperative radiotherapy and to provide an optimal method in drawing the boost field. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients who had 4~7 surgical clips in the excision cavity were selected for this study. The depth informations were obtained to...

PURPOSE: Indoor air quality (IAQ) in the radiation treatment center which is generally located underground is important to the health of hospital workers and patients treated over a long period of time. This study was conducted to measure and analyze the factors related to IAQ and subjective symptoms of sick building syndrome, and to establish the causes influencing IAQ and...