• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.369-376
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• 1993

226 patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated with curative radiation therapy at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Dongsan hospital, Keimyung university, School of medicine, from July,1988 to May,1991 were evaluated. The patients with all stages of the disease were included in this study. The maximum and mean follow up durations were 60 and 43 months. The radiation therapy consisted of external irradiation to the whole pelvis (2700~4500 cGy) and boost parametrial doses (for a total of 4500~6300 cGy)with midline shild $(4{\times}10\;cm),$ and combined with intracavitary irradiation (5700~7500 cGy to point A). The distribution of patients according to the stage was as follows: stage IB 37 $(16.4\%),$ stage IIA 91 $(40.3\%),$ stage IIB 58 $(25.7\%),$ stage III 32 $(13.8\%),$ stage IV 8 $(3.5\%).$ The overall failure rate was $23.9\%$ (54 patients). The failure rate increased as a function of stage from $13.5\%$ in stage IB to $15.4\%$ in stage IIA, $25.9\%$ in stage IIB, $46.9\%$ in stage III, and $62.5\%$ in stage UV. The pelvic failure alone were 32 patients and 11 patients were as a components of other failure, and remaining 11 patients had distant metastasis only. Among the 43 patients of locoregional failure,28 patients were not controlled initially and in other words nearly half of total failures were due to residual tumor. The mean medial paracervical (point A) doses were 6700 cGy in stage IIB,7200 cGy in stage IIA,7450 cGy in stage IIB,7600 cGy in stage III and 8100 cGy in stage IV. The medial paracervical doses showed some correlation with tumor control rate in early stage of disease (stage Ib, IIA), but there were higher central failure rate in advanced stage in spite of higher paracervical doses. In advanced stage, failure were not reduced by simple increment of paracervical doses. To improve a locoregional control rate in advanced stages, it is necessary to give additional treatment such as concomitant chemoradiation.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 1998

Purpose : It is not a simple task to achieve the ideal isodose curve with a standard vaginal applicator or sing1e plane needle impant in the paravaginal tissue when primary or recurrent gynecological neoplasms(cervical cancers, vaginal cancers and vulvar cancers) are treated as a boost following external beam radiotherapy. The authors introduce the development and construction of a simple, inexpensive, customized applicator for volume implant to maximize the radiation dose to the tumor while minimizing the dose to the rectum and the bladder. Materials and Methods : Nine patients underwent Ir-192 transperineal interstitial implantation for either recurrent(5 cases) or primary(3 cases) cervical cancers or primary vaginal cancer(1 case) between August 1994 and February 1998 at Ajou university hospital. First 3 cases were performed with a sing1e plane implant guided by digital palpation. Because of inadequate isodose coverage in the tumor volume in first 3 cases, we designed and constructed interstitial vaginal applicator for volume implant to improve tumor dose distribution and homogeneity while sparing the surrounding normal tissue. Our applicators consist of vaginal obturator and perineal template that made of the clear acrylamide and dental mold material$(Provil^{(R)})$. The applicators were customized individually according to the tumor size and its location Both HDR and LDR irradiation were given with these applicators accomodating 6 Fr needles(Microselectron Nucletron). The pretreatment planning prior to actual implant was performed whenever possible. Results : Needles can be inserted easily and evenly into the tumor volume through the holes of templates, requiring less efforts and time for the implant procedure. Our applicators made of materials available from commercial vendors. These have an advantage that require easy procedure, and spend relatively short time to construct. Also it was possible to fabricate applicators to individualize according to the tumor size and its location and to achieve the ideal isodose coverage. We found an accurate needle arrangement and ideal dose distribution through the CT scan that was obtained in 3 cases after needle implant. Three patients with primary cervical and vaginal cancers were controlled locally at final follow up. But all recurrent cases failed to do so. Conclusion : The authors introduce inexpensive, simple interstitial vaginal templates which were self-designed and constructed using materials available from commercial vendors such as acrylanide and dental mold material $(Provil^{(R)})$.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.355-361
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• 1993

Since May 1991, authors have conducted a pilot study to determine the feasibility and evaluate the effect of concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy with 5-FU and Cis-platinum for locally advanced cervical cancer (stage IIB-IVA). Radiation therapy consisted of external irradiation to whole pelvis (4140 cGy/23 fx) in 4.5 weeks followed by high dose rate intracavitary radiation therapy (HDR ICRT) to deliver a dose of 30 to 35 Gy to A point in 6 to 7 fractions. After the intracavitary radiation therapy, parametrial boost was delivered for B point dose of 60 Gy in Stage IIB and 65 Gy in stage IIIB. 5-FU (1000 $mg/m^2/24hr$ for 96 hour iv infusion) and Cis-platinum (20 $mg/m^2/day$ IV bolus for 3 days) were given during the second week of external RT and the second course chemotherapy administered at the first HDR ICRT with the same method as the first chemotherapy. Sixteen patients (10 stage IIB,4 stage IIIB,2 stage IVA) were registered to this protocol. Among these 16 patients, two refused treatment after 2 fractions of external irradiation, and one could not continue intracavitary irradiation because of treatment related genitourinary toxicity. So 14 patients were evaluated for toxicity and 13 patients were evaluated for response analysis. Five of 14 patients developed grade 3 gastrointestinal toxicity but 4 of them recovered at the completion of treatment. One stage IIIB patient with inguinal lymph node metastasis who received higher dose of radiation in spite of initial poor performance status did not recover from gastrointestinal toxicity at the completion of treatment. And she died of distant metastasis at one month after the completion of treatment. Two of 14 evaluable patients showed weight loss, more than $10\%$ of initial weight. One patient developed grade 3 leukopenia. In this study, the average total treatment period of completely treated patients was 75 days and three of them took more than 80 days (84, 84, 89 days). Toxicities were generally acceptable and there were no treatment related death. At the last follow-up, complete response was achieved in $62\%(8/13)$ and especially of nine patients with stage IIB, eight patients showed complete response. This study suggests that concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy (5-FU and Cis-platinum) is tolerable and effective. Further follow-up is needed to determine whether this protocol will have a favorable impact on survival and to evaluate the late effect on normal tissues. In future, prospective randomized trials are needed to compare the standard radiation therapy alone with concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for locally advanced cervical carcinoma.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: To evaluate the incidences and potential predictive factors for symptomatic radiation pneumonitis (SRP) and radiographic pulmonary toxicity (RPT) following adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) for patients with breast cancer. A particular focus was made to correlate RPT with the dose volume histogram (DVH) parameters based on three-dimensional RT planning (3D-RTP) data. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: From September 2003 through February 2006, 171 patients with breast cancer were treated with adjuvant RT following breast surgery. A radiation dose of 50.4 Gy was delivered with tangential photon fields on the whole breast or chest wall. A single anterior oblique photon field for supraclavicular (SCL) nodes was added if indicated. Serial follow-up chest radiographs were reviewed by a chest radiologist. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) toxicity criteria were used for grading SRP and a modified World Health Organization (WHO) grading system was used to evaluate RPT. The overall percentage of the ipsilateral lung volume that received ${\geq}15\;Gy\;(V_{15}),\;20\;Gy\;(V_{20})$, and $30\;Gy\;(V_{30})$ and the mean lung dose (MLD) were calculated. We divided the ipsilateral lung into two territories, and defined separate DVH parameters, i.e., $V_{15\;TNGT},\;V_{20\;TNGT},\;V_{30\;TNGT},\;MLD_{TNGT}$, and $V_{15\;SCL},\;V_{20\;SCL},\;V_{30SCL},\;MLD_{SCL}$ to assess the relationship between these parameters and RPT. $\underline{Results}$: Four patients (2.1%) developed SRP (three with grade 3 and one with grade 2, respectively). There was no significant association of SRP with clinical parameters such as, age, pre-existing lung disease, smoking, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and regional RT. When 137 patients treated with 3D-RTP were evaluated, 13.9% developed RPT in the tangent (TNGT) territory and 49.2% of 59 patients with regional RT developed RPT in the SCL territory. Regional RT (p<0.001) and age (p=0.039) was significantly correlated with RPT. All DVH parameters except for $V_{15\;TNGT}$ showed a significant correlation with RPT (p<0.05). $MLD_{TNGT}$ was a better predictor for RPT for the TNGT territory than $V_{15\;SCL}$ for the SCL territory. $\underline{Conclusion}$: The incidence of SRP was acceptable with the RT technique that was used. Age and regional RT were significant factors to predict RPT. The DVH parameter was good predictor for RPT for the SCL territory while $MLD_{TNGT}$ was a better predictor for RPT for the TNGT territory.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.143-152
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• 2010

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the current status of hospice palliative care facilities in Korea. Based on the result, we attempted to suggest activation plans of hospice palliative in Korea. Methods: To conduct a survey, we obtained a list of hospice palliative care facilities from related agencies and academic societies. A survey was conducted from February, 2009 to March, 2009. The survey was consisted of general characteristics of organizations, manpower, facilities & equipments, and so on. In addition, we used data from Statistics Korea to estimate the number of beds required and the bed occupancy rate. Results: Total number of facilities responded to the questionnaire were 53. Forty-two facilities were general hospitals and 6 facilities were clinics among the total 53 facilities, and 18.8% of facilities were located in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggido. Overall bed occupancy rate was rather low as 21.9%, and there were 4 provinces where bed occupancy rates were 0%. Deaths in hospice palliative care facilities during 2008 were 6.3% of total deaths from cancers. As for the questions about the financial status of facilities, 86% of facilities were answered financial insufficiency. Also more than half of the facilities gave financial insufficiency as the reason for shortage of human resource supplies and inability to achieve the standard for authorization by the government. Facilities answered in order to activate the hospice palliative care, governmental support is needed, mostly in financial support (71.2%), donation tax deduction (43.1%), and setting up a public utility foundation (23.5%). Conclusion: This study showed low rates of hospice palliative care use and bed occupancy in Korea. Regional variance in bed occupancy rate was significantly high. As a roadblock for these problems, most of the facilities cited financial insufficiency. Therefore, there must be some action plans to boost financial support to activate hospice palliative care in Korea. Finally, efforts to improve these circumstances including lack of understanding about hospice and palliative care, are needed as well.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.3340-3353
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• 2009

This paper aims to study the effect of academia-industrial cooperation on the technical innovation of small and medium-sized companies. A survey was conducted on about 1,100 businesses located in the Sihwa-Banwol industrial estate to analyze the consequence of three factors of academia-industrial cooperation. the joint use of equipments, technological support of universities to businesses, and cooperative technological development through technical guidance-on entrepreneurial capability and their knowledge-absorption ability, and ultimately on their technological innovation,. The validity of the survey result was tested through the Structural Equation Model. On the basis of the comparison between companies which have participated in academy-industry cooperation and companies which have not, this paper suggests that venture businesses should take advantage of the cooperation with universities to boost their competitiveness. The analysis of the three individual factors of the academy-industry cooperation based on the Structural Equation Model shows that all of them have remarkable influence on entrepreneurial capability, but that they don't have as much impact on businesses' knowledge absorption ability. However, the outcome of technological innovation of businesses is primarily influenced by entrepreneurial capability rather than their knowledge absorption ability. The survey also shows that the three factors of the cooperation have an equal impact on the competitiveness of companies regardless of their business type or their products' growth stages. As the companies involved in academy industry cooperation outweigh other businesses, in terms of technological innovation, the numbers of new product development, and the numbers of their process improvement cases, this paper argues that new strategies should be taken for the businesses to fully take advantage of academy-industry cooperation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.241-263
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• 2010

KoFlux is a Korean network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to monitor the cycles of energy, water, and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the key terrestrial ecosystems in Korea. KoFlux embraces the mission of AsiaFlux, i.e. to bring Asia's key ecosystems under observation to ensure quality and sustainability of life on earth. The main purposes of KoFlux are to provide (1) an infrastructure to monitor, compile, archive and distribute data for the science community and (2) a forum and short courses for the application and distribution of knowledge and data between scientists including practitioners. The KoFlux community pursues the vision of AsiaFlux, i.e., "thinking community, learning frontiers" by creating information and knowledge of ecosystem science on carbon, water and energy exchanges in key terrestrial ecosystems in Asia, by promoting multidisciplinary cooperations and integration of scientific researches and practices, and by providing the local communities with sustainable ecosystem services. Currently, KoFlux has seven sites in key terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., five sites in Korea and two sites in the Arctic and Antarctic). KoFlux has systemized a standardized data processing based on scrutiny of the data observed from these ecosystems and synthesized the processed data for constructing database for further uses with open access. Through publications, workshops, and training courses on a regular basis, KoFlux has provided an agora for building networks, exchanging information among flux measurement and modelling experts, and educating scientists in flux measurement and data analysis. Despite such persistent initiatives, the collaborative networking is still limited within the KoFlux community. In order to break the walls between different disciplines and boost up partnership and ownership of the network, KoFlux will be housed in the National Center for Agro-Meteorology (NCAM) at Seoul National University in 2011 and provide several core services of NCAM. Such concerted efforts will facilitate the augmentation of the current monitoring network, the education of the next-generation scientists, and the provision of sustainable ecosystem services to our society.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2006

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: To evaluate the role of postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer, we retrospectively analyzed the treatment outcome of patients with rectal cancer taken curative surgical resection and postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: A total 46 patients with AJCC stage II and III carcinoma of rectum were treated with curative surgical resection and postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. T3 and T4 stage were 38 and 8 patients, respectively. N0, N1, and N2 stage were 12, 16, 18 patients, respectively. Forty patients received bolus infusions of 5-fluorouracil ($500\;mg/m^2/day$) with leucovorin ($20\;mg/m^2/day$), every 4 weeks interval for 6 cycles. Oral Uracil/Tegafur on a daily basis for $6{\sim}12$ months was given in 6 patients. Radiotherapy with 45 Gy was delivered to the surgical bed and regional pelvic lymph node area, followed by $5.4{\sim}9\;Gy$ boost to the surgical bed. The follow up period ranged from 8 to 75 months with a median 35 months. $\underline{Results}$: Treatment failure occurred in 17 patients (37%). Locoregional failure occurred in 4 patients (8.7%) and distant failure in 16 patients (34.8%). There was no local failure only. Five year actuarial overall survival (OS) was 51.5% and relapse free survival (RFS) was 58.7%. The OS and RFS were 100%, 100% in stage N0 patients, 53.7%, 47.6% in N1 patients, and 0%, 41.2% in N2 patients (p=0.012, p=0.009). The RFS was 55%, 78.5%, and 31.2% in upper, middle, and lower rectal cancer patients, respectively (p=0.006). Multivariate analysis showed that N stage (p=0.012) was significant prognostic factor for OS and that N stage (p=0.001) and location of tumor (p=0.006) were for RFS. Bowel complications requiring surgery occurred in 3 patients. $\underline{Conclusion}$: Postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy was an effective modality for locoregional control of rectal cancer. But further investigations for reducing the distant failure rate are necessary because distant failure rate is still high.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of predisposing, enabling, need factors and oral health care factors to the dental utilization in 4,521 senior citizens based on the 5th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. As for the relationship of predisposing, enabling and need factors to the necessity of denture, higher academic credential and higher income level that were respectively one of predisposing and need factors led to a higher necessity of denture, and the relationship of these factors was statistically significant. As to influential factors for their dental utilization in Model 1, there were significant differences according to gender, marital status and whether to subscribe to private health insurance or not. In Model 2, the need factors of Model 1 were adjusted. As a result, the respondents who didn't receive any unsatisfactory dental treatment made 1.35-fold more dental utilization, and the respondents who complained about mastication difficulty made 1.34-fold more dental utilization. There were significant differences according to gender, age, marital status, academic credential, whether to subscribe to private health insurance, unsatisfactory dental treatment experience and mastication difficulty. Age, unsatisfactory dental treatment experience and whether to complain about mastication difficulty or not made statistically significant differences to the dental utilization in Model 3 that involved oral health status. The above-mentioned findings illustrated that the predisposing factors, the enabling factors and the need factors exerted an influence on the elderly dental utilization. As there are a variety of factors to affect elderly dental utilization, its required to make an effort to boost the accessibility of the elderly to dental service in order to improve their oral health of the elderly.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2000

Purpose :We conducted a prospective non-randomized clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and toxic of the preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced unresectable rectal cancer. Materials and Methods: Between January 1995 and June 1998, 37 conecutive patients with locally unresectable advanced rectal cancer were entered into the study. With 3- or 4- fields technique, a total of 45 Gy radiation was delivered on whole pelvis, followed by 5.4 Gy boost to the primary tumor in some cases. Chemotherapy was done at the first and fifth week of radiation with bolus i.v. 5-Fluorouracil (FU) 370$\~$450 mg/m$^{2}$, days 1$\~$5, plus Leucovorin 20 mg/m$^{2}$, days 1$\~$5. OF 37 patients, 6 patients did not receive all planned treatment course (refusal in 4, disease progression in 1, metastasis to lung in 1). Surgical resection was undergone 4$\~$6 weeks after preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Results :Complete resection rate with negative margins was 94$\%$ (29/31). Complete response was seen in 7 patients (23$\%$) clinically and 2 patients (6$\%$) pathologically. Down staging of tumor occured in 21 patients (68$\%$). Treatment related toxicity was minimal except grade III & IV leukopenia in 2 patients, respectively. Conclusion : Preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer was effective in inducing down staging and complete resection rate. Treatment related toxicity was minimal. Further follow up is on-going to determine long term survival following this treatment.