• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.473-484
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• 1997

This study was performed to survey the specific information about the time of onset, frequency, duration, and severity of the side effect of radiation therapy following breast cancer surgery, and identify the difference of these data according to the type of breast cancer surgery : modified radical mastectomy(MRM) vs. breast consevative operation(BCO). 38 breast cancer patients were interviewed with side effect profile about radiation therapy. Interview was done weekley from the start of radiation therapy through 6 weeks and 3 month follow-up interview was done at 3 month after completion of the treatment. The results are as follow : 1. Total score of side effect experienced by the breast cancer patients was rapidly increased at 2-3 week after intiating treatement and continousely raised maintaing high score until completion of the treatement. Some problems like cough, dyspnea and pain were more experienced after treatment. 2. Patients with modified radical mastectomy showed more total score of side effects than patients with breast conservative operation. And both patients with MRM and BCO experienced similar pattern of side effect to radiation therapy. Through these data we concluded that side effect to radiation therapy was not ended at completion of treatement. Patents will continously experiend various problems and suffer from not only acute side effects like skin problem, sore throat and swollowing difficulty but also late effect of the radiation therapy. Clinically these data can be used for oncologic nurse to provide informational interventions to prepare breast cancer patients for the radiation therapy.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.803-807
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• 2011

Purpose: The safety of radiation therapy after breast reconstruction using transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flap is still being debated, and few studies exist on the outcome of irradiation after immediate TRAM breast reconstruction. Some authors presented satisfactory outcomes after adjuvant radiation therapy on reconstructed breast with pedicled TRAM flap, while others reported significant post radiation changes of the flap. Effect of radiation therapy on TRAM flap was evaluated to see whether adjuvant radiation therapy was tolerable. Methods: 1000 immediate TRAM breast reconstruction was done by a single surgeon from July, 2001 to December, 2009. Among them 105 patients required adjuvant radiation therapy because of advanced disease or locoregional recurrence. Fat necrosis, radiation fibrosis, mastectomy skin flap necrosis, need for secondary touch up procedures, patient satisfaction were evaluated. Results: The incidence of fat necrosis was 10.5% and significant radiation fibrosis occurred in only one patient. Delayed wound problem did not occur during or after irradiation. Secondary touch-up procedures were performed in 12.3%, the most common being fat graft (8.6%). Average patient satisfaction score was 8.62/10, which was not significantly different from the authors' previous report involving all the TRAM patients (8.50). Conclusion: Radiation therapy did not increase the complication rate significantly. Aesthetic result was affected but was tolerated in most cases. The fear of adjuvant radiation is not a negative factor in selecting immediate breast reconstruction with TRAM flap.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.191-198
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• 2013

Purpose: To observe long-term clinical outcomes for patients with early-stage breast cancer treated with forward intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), including local control and clinical toxicities. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 214 patients with stage I-II breast cancer who were treated with breast conserving surgery followed by adjuvant breast radiation therapy between 2001 and 2008. All patients were treated using forward IMRT. The whole breast was irradiated to a dose of 50 to 50.4 Gy followed by an 8 to 12 Gy electron boost to the surgical bed. Results: The median age was 46 years (range, 21 to 82 years) and the medial follow-up time was 7.3 years (range, 2.4 to 11.7 years). Stage T1 was 139 (65%) and T2 was 75 (35%), respectively. Ipsilateral breast recurrence was observed in 3 patients. The 5- and 10-year local control rates were 99.1% and 97.8%, respectively. The cosmetic outcome was evaluated according to the Harvard scale and 89.4% of patients were scored as excellent or good. Conclusion: The whole breast radiation therapy as an adjuvant treatment using a forward IMRT technique showed excellent long-term local control as well as favorable outcomes of toxicity and cosmesis.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2010

Purpose: To analyze differences in the dose uniformity for the computed breast radiation therapy planning with tangential beam between conventional RT using wedge filter and FiF-IMRT using multileaf collimator based onsizes and volumes of breasts. Materials and Methods: Thirty breast cancer patients were classified according to the sizes and volumes of the breasts using Eclipse treatment planning system ($Varian^{TM}$, USA, V8.0). Conformity Index and Homogeneity Index were computed along with Dose Volume Histogram. Results: No differencein CI (${\pm}1.2%$) was observed. However, lower mean HI (1.67%) in FiF-IMRT was observed compared to that of the conventional RT. Statically significant (P<0.01) correlation was identified between the values of ${\Delta}HI$ (%) and physical parameters such as breast volumes and separations. Conclusion: Increase in breast volume and separation improves the dose uniformities in computed radiation therapy planning for FiF-IMRT. Physical dimension of the breast should be considered to optimize the compured radiation therapy planning.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2019

The aim of this study was analyzed the setup error of breast cancer patients in intensity modulated radiation therapy(IMRT) with deep inspiration breath holding(DIBH) and was analyzed the dose distribution due to setup error. A total of 45 breast cancer cases were performed a retrospective clinical analysis of setup error. In addition, the re-treatment planning was carried by shifting the setup error from the isocenter at the treatment. Based on this, the dose distribution of PTV and OARs was compared and analyzed. The 3D error for small breast group and medium breast group and large breast group were 3.1 mm and 3.7 mm and 4.1 mm, respectively. The difference between the groups was statistically significant(P=0.003). DVH results showed HI, CI for the PTV difference between standard treatment plan and re-treatment plan of 14.4%, 4%. The difference in $D_5$ and $V_{20}$ of the ipsilateral lung was 5.6%, 13% respectively. The difference in $D_5$ and $V_5$ of the heart of right breast cancer patients was 6.8%, 8% respectively. The difference in $D_5$, $V_{20}$ of the heart of left breast cancer patients was 7.2%, 23.5% respectively. In this study, there was a significant association between breast size and significant setup error in breast cancer patients with DIBH. In addition, it was found that the dose distribution of the PTV and OARs varied according to the setup error.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 1985

Radiation Therapy(RT) has been used in the treatment of breast cancer for over 80 years. Technically, it should include a part or all of such areas as chest wall or breast, axilla, internal mammary nodes(IM) and supraclavicular nodes (SCL). Authors tried three-field technique for the treatment of breast cancer using 6 MV linear accelerator, exclusively the department of Radiology, Kang-Nam St. Mary's Hospital, at Catholic Medical College. The field junction was checked by a phantom study and radiation doses measured by film densitometry and TLD. The 3 fields we used in this study were two isocentric opposing tangential fields encompassing the breast, chest wall and occasionally IM and one single anterior field encompassing the axilla and SCL. Using appropriate beam blocks and blouses, we were able to avoid unwanted intrinsic divergency of photon beam. Blocking also enabled us to set-up precise radiation field with ease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3257-3265
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• 2015

Background: Radiotherapy is an important treatment of choice for breast cancer patients after breast-conserving surgery, and we compare the feasibility of using dual arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT2), single arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT1) and Multi-beam Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (M-IMRT) on patients after breast-conserving surgery. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with breast cancer (half right-sided and half left-sided) treated by conservative lumpectomy and requiring whole breast radiotherapy with tumor bed boost were planned with three different radiotherapy techniques: 1) VMAT1; 2) VMAT2; 3) M-IMRT. The distributions for the planning target volume (PTV) and organs at risk (OARs) were compared. Dosimetries for all the techniques were compared. Results: All three techniques satisfied the dose constraint well. VMAT2 showed no obvious difference in the homogeneity index (HI) and conformity index (CI) of the PTV with respect to M-IMRT and VMAT1. VMAT2 clearly improved the treatment efficiency and can also decrease the mean dose and V5Gy of the contralateral lung. The mean dose and maximum dose of the spinal cord and contralateral breast were lower for VMAT2 than the other two techniques. The very low dose distribution (V1Gy) of the contralateral breast also showed great reduction in VMAT2 compared with the other two techniques. For the ipsilateral lung of right-sided breast cancer, the mean dose was decreased significantly in VMAT2 compared with VMAT1 and M-IMRT. The V20Gy and V30Gy of the ipsilateral lung of the left-sided breast cancer for VMAT2 showed obvious reduction compared with the other two techniques. The heart statistics of VMAT2 also decreased considerably compared to VMAT1 and M-IMRT. Conclusions: Compared to the other two techniques, the dual arc volumetric modulated arc therapy technique reduced radiation dose exposure to the organs at risk and maintained a reasonable target dose distribution.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.67-70
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• 1994

The use of primary breast irraditation with advantage of improved cosmesis in breast cancer may be the potential risks of radiation for a change in the number of normal breast cancers and lung fibrosis. The magnitude of the scattered dose for a variety of radiation treatment techniques from patient of breast cancer and phantom was measured by adequate dosimeters. We can reduce the dose of the normal breast to treated with radiation by understanding the factors contributing to the unwanted dose and by determining ways to decrease this dose.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.196-202
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• 2016

We aim to develop the breast bolus by using a 3D printer to minimize the air-gap, and compare it to commercial bolus used for patients undergoing reconstruction in breast cancer. The bolus-shaped region of interests (ROIs) were contoured at the surface of the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) thorax phantom with 5 mm thickness, after which the digital imaging and communications in mdicine (DICOM)-RT structure file was acquired. The intensity-modulated radiation therapy (Tomo-IMRT) and direct mode (Tomo-Direct) using the Tomotherapy were established. The 13 point doses were measured by optically stimulated luminescence (OSLD) dosimetry. The measurement data was analyzed to quantitatively evaluate the applicability of 3D bolus. The percentage change of mean measured dose between the commercial bolus and 3D-bolus was 2.3% and 0.7% for the Tomo-direct and Tomo-IMRT, respectively. For air-gap, range of the commercial bolus was from 0.8 cm to 1.5 cm at the periphery of the right breast. In contrast, the 3D-bolus have occurred the air-gap (i.e., 0 cm). The 3D-bolus for radiation therapy reduces the air-gap on irregular body surface that believed to help in accurate and precise radiation therapy due to better property of adhesion.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.432-440
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• 2018

Background Adjuvant therapy after breast surgery, including tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors, improves the postoperative outcomes and long-term survival of breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether volume changes occurred in the contralateral breast during hormonal or other adjuvant therapies. Methods This study reviewed 90 patients who underwent unilateral breast reconstruction between September 2012 and April 2018 using tissue expanders and a permanent implant after the surgical removal of breast cancer. The volume of the contralateral breast was measured using a cast before the first (tissue expander insertion) and second (permanent implant change) stages of surgery. Changes in breast volume were evaluated to determine whether adjuvant therapy such as hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy influenced the volume of the contralateral breast. Results The group receiving tamoxifen therapy demonstrated a significant decrease in volume compared with the group without tamoxifen (-7.8% vs. 1.0%; P=0.028). The aromatase inhibitor-treated group showed a significant increase in volume compared with those who did not receive therapy (-6.2% vs. 4.5%; P=0.023). There were no significant differences between groups treated with other hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. Conclusions Patients who received tamoxifen therapy showed a significant decrease in volume in the contralateral breast, while no significant change in weight or body mass index was found. Our findings suggest that we should choose smaller implants for premenopausal patients, who have a high likelihood of receiving tamoxifen therapy.