PURPOSE: Uterine cervix cancer is one of the most prevalent women cancer in Korea. We analysed published papers in Korea with comparing Patterns of Care Study (PCS) articles of United States and Japan for the purpose of developing and processing Korean PCS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched PCS related foreign-produced papers in the PCS homepage (212 articles and abstracts) and from...

PURPOSE: This retrospective study was conducted to analyze the treatment results and to evaluate the prognostic factors affecting the survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1987 to 2002, we analyzed 43 patients who had nasopharyngeal carcinomas that were histologically confirmed and who had also completed the planned radiation therapy course at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. According...

PURPOSE: We studied the effect of such variables as the symptom improvement rate, survival and prognostic factors on the treatment results of radiation therapy for Superior Vena Cava Syndrome (SVCS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1988 to 2003, seventy two patients with SVCS were treated with radiation therapy at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. The patients' ages...

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to analyze treatment outcome and prognostic significance of World Health Organization (WHO)-defined thymic epithelial tumor (TET) subtype and to assess optimal radiation target volume in patients receiving surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy with TET. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The record of 160 patients with TET, who received surgical resection at the Samsung medical Center, from December 1994...

PURPOSE: Reports on the outcome of curative radiotherapy for the primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are rarely encountered in the literature. In this study, we report our experience of a clinical trial where fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) was used in treating a primary HCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 20 patients who had been histologically diagnosed as HCC...

PURPOSE: The objective of our study was to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of p53 and bax proteins as prognostic markers in FIGO stage IIb invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-five cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix (stage IIb) that were diagnosed from October 1996 to December 2003 were analyzed retrospectively for the bax...

PURPOSE: Repetitive bleeding into the joint space is the cause of debilitative hemophilic arthropathy. To interrupt this process, we treated the hemophilic patients suffering from repetitive joint bleeding with radiation therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1997 to 2001, a total of 41 joints from 37 hemophilic arthropathy patients were treated with radiation therapy at Kyung Hee University Hospital. The treated joints...

Primary malignant melanoma of the vagina is an extremely rare genital neoplasm occurring mainly in postmenopausal women. It has a worse prognosis than cutaneous melanomas, because of the high rate of loco- regional recurrences and rapid systemic dissemination. In the past, radical surgical extirpation as the primary management had been recommended to improve loco-regional control, and possibly overall survival. However,...

PURPOSE: Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) are emerging as potentially useful components of anticancer therapy and their radiosensitizing effects have become evident. Specific HDIs are now available that preferentially inhibit specific HDAC classes; TSA inhibits Class I and II HDACs, and SK7041 inhibits Class I HDACs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We tested the differential radiosensitization induced by two different classes of HDIs in...

PURPOSE: We wanted to improve the setup reproducibility of breast cancer patients when utilizing a commercially available breast board for radiation therapy. The breast board was modified by using a new head rest and 2 types of board fixation devices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A conventional head/neck rest was modified to be positioned in various slots of the breast board, and it...