• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.113-122
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• 2010

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of a target position at static and dynamic state by using Dynamic phantom for the difference between tumor's actual movement during respiratory gated radiation therapy and skin movement measured by RPM (Real-time Position Management). Materials and Methods: It self-produced Dynamic phantom that moves two-dimensionally to measure a tumor moved by breath. After putting marker block on dynamic phantom, it analyzed the amplitude and status change depending on respiratory time setup in advance by using RPM. It places marker block on dynamic phantom based on this result, inserts Gafchromic EBT film into the target, and investigates 5 Gy respectively at static and dynamic state. And it scanned investigated Gafchromic EBT film and analyzed dose distribution by using automatic calculation. Results: As a result of an analysis of Gafchromic EBT film's radiation amount at static and dynamic state, it could be known that dose distribution involving 90% is distributed within margin of error of 3 mm. Conclusion: As a result of an analysis of dose distribution's change depending on patient's respiratory cycle during respiratory gated radiation therapy, it is expected that the treatment would be possible within recommended margin of error at ICRP 60.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2024

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the specialty hospital system by comparing the medical use of inpatients who had artificial joint replacement surgery in specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals. Methods: This study utilized 2021-2022 healthcare benefit claims data provided by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The dependent variable is inpatient medical use which is measured in terms of charges per case and length of stay. The independent variable was whether the hospital was designated as a specialty hospital, and the control variables were patient-level variables (age, gender, insurer type, surgery type, and Charlson comorbidity index) and medical institution-level variables (establishment type, classification, location, number of orthopedic surgeons, and number of nurses). Results: The results of the multiple regression analysis between charges per case and whether a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital showed a statistically significant negative relationship between charges per case and whether a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital. This suggests a significant low in charges per case when a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital compared to a non-specialty hospital, indicating that there is a difference in medical use outcomes between specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals inpatients. Conclusion: The practical implications of this study are as follows. First, the criteria for designating specialty hospitals should be alleviated. In our study, the results show that specialty hospitals have significantly lower per-case costs than non-specialty hospitals. Despite the cost-effectiveness of specialty hospitals, the high barriers to be designated for specialty hospitals have gathered the specialty hospitals in metropolitan and major cities. To address the regional imbalance of specialty hospitals, it is believed that ease the criteria for designating specialty hospitals in non-metropolitan areas, such as introducing "semi-specialty hospitals (tentative name)," will lead to a reduction in health disparities between regions and reduce medical costs. Second, it is necessary to determine the appropriateness of the size of hospitals' medical staff. The study found that the number of orthopedic surgeons and nurses varied in charges per case. Therefore, it is believed that appropriately allocating hospital medical staff can maximize the cost-effectiveness of medical services and ultimately reduce medical costs.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2012

In order to develop a Patient respiratory management system includinga biofeedback function for4-dimentional radiation therapy, this study investigated anoptimal tracking algorithmfor moving target using IR (Infra-red) camera as well as commercial camera. A tracking system was developed by LabVIEW 2010. Motion phantom images were acquired using a camera (IR or commercial). After image process were conducted to convert acquired image to binary image by applying a threshold values, several edge enhance methods such as Sobel, Prewitt, Differentiation, Sigma, Gradient, Roberts, were applied. The targetpattern was defined in the images, and acquired image from a moving targetwas tracked by matching pre-defined tracking pattern. During the matching of imagee, thecoordinateof tracking point was recorded. In order to assess the performance of tracking algorithm, the value of score which represents theaccuracy of pattern matching was defined. To compare the algorithm objectively, we repeat experiments 3 times for 5 minuts for each algorithm. Average valueand standard deviations (SD) of score were automatically calculatedsaved as ASCII format. Score of threshold only was 706, and standard deviation was 84. The value of average and SD for other algorithms which combined edge detection method and thresholdwere 794, 64 in Sobel, 770, 101 in Differentiation, 754, 85 in Gradient, 763, 75 in Prewitt, 777, 93 in Roberts, and 822, 62 in Sigma, respectively. According to score analysis, the most efficient tracking algorithm is the Sigma method. Therefore, 4-dimentional radiation threapy is expected tobemore efficient if threshold and Sigma edge detection method are used together in target tracking.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.335-341
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• 2024

Objectives: Patients with cancer eventually fail to respond to therapy when malignant cells develop effective ways to evade immunosurveillance. Conventional cancer treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, aim to cure the disease or prolong the patient's life. However, the toxicity and side effects of conventional treatments limit their efficacy. Herbal medicine is a typical complementary and integrative form of medicine for cancer treatment in Asia. This protocol evaluates the effectiveness of herbal medicines in improving the immune function of patients with cancer. Methods: The following electronic databases will be searched: MEDLINE via PubMed, EMBASE via Elsevier, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Korean databases including Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS), National Digital Science Library (NDSL), and Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS). Additionally, prospective randomized controlled trials that evaluate the effectiveness of herbal medicines on immune function in patients with cancer will be included in this review. All outcomes related to the immune function of patients with cancer (e.g., CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8 ratio, CD19 (B cells), dendritic cells (CD11), CD56 (NK cells), and macrophages) will be included in this review. Results: This review is expected to provide data on the effectiveness of herbal medicines on improving immune functions in patients with cancers. Conclusion: This systematic review will help patients and clinicians establish new management options for cancer treatment.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 1976

The categories of national health problems may be mainly divided into health promotion, problems of diseases, and population-economic problems which are indirectly related to health. Of them, the problems of diseases will be exclusively dealt with this speech. Rurality and Disease Problems There are many differences between rural and urban areas. In general, indicators of rurality are small size of towns, dispersion of the population, remoteness from urban centers, inadequacy of public transportation, poor communication, inadequate sanitation, poor housing, poverty, little education lack of health personnels and facilities, and in-accessibility to health services. The influence of such conditions creates, directly or indirectly, many problems of diseases in the rural areas. Those art the occurrence of preventable diseases, deterioration and prolongation of illness due to loss of chance to get early treatment, decreased or prolonged labour force loss, unnecessary death, doubling of medical cost, and economic loss. Some Considerations of Innovative Approach The followings art some considerations of innovative approaches to the problems of diseases in the rural Korea. 1. It would be essential goal of the innovative approaches that the damage and economic loss due to diseases will be maintained to minimum level by minimizing the absolute amount of the diseases, and by moderating the fee for medical cares. The goal of the minimization of the disease amount may be achieved by preventive services and early treatment, and the goal of moderating the medical fee may be achieved by lowering the prime cost and by adjusting the medical fees to reasonable level. 2. Community health service or community medicine will be adopted as a innovative means to disease problems. In this case, a community is defined as an unit area where supply and utilization of primary service activities can be accomplished within a day. The essential nature o the community health service should be such activities as health promotion, preventive measures, medical care, and rehabilitation performing efficiently through the organized efforts of the residents in a community. Each service activity should cover all members of the residents in a community in its plan and performance. The cooperation of the community peoples in one of the essential elements for success of the service program, The motivations of their cooperative mood may be activated through several ways: when the participation of the residents in service program of especially the direct participation of organized cooperation of the area leaders art achieved through a means of health education: when the residents get actual experience of having received the benefit of good quality services; and when the health personnels being armed with an idealism that they art working in the areas to help health problems of the residents, maintain good human relationships with them. For the success of a community health service program, a personnel who is in charge of leadership and has an able, a sincere and a steady characters seems to be required in a community. The government should lead and support the community health service programs of the nation under the basis of results appeared in the demonstrative programs so as to be carried out the programs efficiently. Moss of the health problems may be treated properly in the community levels through suitable community health service programs but there might be some problems which art beyond their abilities to be dealt with. To solve such problems each community health service program should be under the referral systems which are connected with health centers, hospitals, and so forth. 3. An approach should be intensively groped to have a physician in each community. The shortage of physicians in rural areas is world-wide problem and so is the Korean situation. In the past the government has initiated a system of area-limited physician, coercion, and a small scale of scholarship program with unsatisfactory results. But there might be ways of achieving the goal by intervice, broadened, and continuous approaches. There will be several ways of approach to motivate the physicians to be settled in a rural community. They are, for examples, to expos the students to the community health service programs during training, to be run community health service programs by every health or medical schools and other main medical facilities, communication activities and advertisement, desire of community peoples to invite a physician, scholarship program, payment of satisfactory level, fulfilment of military obligation in case of a future draft, economic growth and development of rural communities, sufficiency of health and medical facilities, provision of proper medical care system, coercion, and so forth. And, hopefully, more useful reference data on the motivations may be available when a survey be conducted to the physicians who are presently engaging in the rural community levels. 4. In communities where the availability of a physician is difficult, a trial to use physician extenders, under certain conditions, may be considered. The reason is that it would be beneficial for the health of the residents to give them the remedies of primary medical care through the extenders rather than to leave their medical problems out of management. The followings are the conditions to be considered when the physician extenders are used: their positions will be prescribed as a temporary one instead of permanent one so as to allow easy replacement of the position with a physician applicant; the extender will be under periodic direction and supervision of a physician, and also referral channel will be provided: legal constraints will be placed upon the extenders primary care practice, and the physician extenders will used only under the public medical care system. 5. For the balanced health care delivery, a greater investment to the rural areas is needed to compensate weak points of a rurality. The characteristics of a rurality has been already mentioned. The objective of balanced service for rural communities to level up that of urban areas will be hard to achieve without greater efforts and supports. For example, rural communities need mobile powers more than urban areas, communication network is extremely necessary at health delivery facilities in rural areas as well as the need of urban areas, health and medical facilities in rural areas should be provided more substantially than those of urban areas to minimize, in a sense, the amount of patient consultation and request of laboratory specimens through referral system of which procedures are more troublesome in rural areas, and more intensive control measures against communicable diseases are needed in rural areas where greater numbers of cases are occurred under the poor sanitary conditions.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.65-87
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• 1981

The study is aimed at exploring concept held by clinical nurses of nursing. The data were collected from 225 nurses conviniently selected from the population of nurses working in Kang Won province. Findings include. 1) Nurse's Qualification. The respondents view that specialized knowledge is more important qualification of the nurse. Than warm personality. Specifically, 92.9% of the respondents indicated specialized knowledge as the most important qualification while only 43.1％ indicated warm personality. 2) On Nursing Profession. The respondents view that nursing profession as health service oriented rather than independent profession specifically. This suggests that nursing profession is not consistentic present health care delivery system nor support nurses working independently. 3) On Clients of Nursing Care The respondents include patients, family and the community residents in the category of nursing care. Specifically, 92.0％ of the respondents view that patient is the client, while only 67.1％ of nursing student and 74.7％ of herself. This indicates the lack of the nurse's recognition toward their clients. 4) On the Priority of Nursing care. Most of the respondents view the clients physical psychological respects as important component of nursing care but not the spiritual ones. Specially, 96.0% of the respondents indicated the physical respects, 93% psychological ones, while 64.1% indicated the spiritual ones. This means the lack of comprehensive conception on nursing aimension. 5) On Nursing Care. 91.6% of the respondents indicated that nursing care is the activity decreasing pain or helping to recover illness, while only 66.2% indicated earring out the physicians medical orders. 6) On Purpose of Nursing Care. 89.8% of the respondents indicated preventing illness and than 76.6% of them decreasing 1;ai of clients. On the other hand, maintaining health has the lowest selection at the degree of 13.8%. This means the lack of nurses' recognition for maintaining health as the most important point. 7) On Knowledge Needed in Nursing Care. Most of the respondents view that the knowledge faced with the spot of nursing care is needed. Specially, 81.3% of the respondents indicated simple curing method and 75.1%, 73.3%, 71.6% each indicated child nursing, maternal nursing and controlling for the communicable disease. On the other hand, knowledge w hick has been neglected in the specialized courses of nursing education, that is, thinking line among com-w unity members, overcoming style against between stress and personal relation in each home, and administration, management have a low selection at the depree of 48.9%,41.875 and 41.3%. 8) On Nursing Idea. The highest degree of selection is that they know themselves rightly, (The mean score measuring distribution was 4.205/5) In the lowest degree,3.016/5 is that devotion is the essential element of nursing, 2.860/5 the religious problems that human beings can not settle, such as a fatal ones, 2,810/5 the nursing profession is worth trying in one's life. This means that the peculiarly essential ideas on the professional sense of value. 9) On Nursing Services. The mean score measuring distribution for the nursing services showed that the inserting of machine air way is 2.132/5, the technique and knowledge for surviving heart-lung resuscitating is 2.892/s, and the preventing air pollution 3.021/5. Specially, 41.1% of the respondents indicated the lack of the replied ratio. 10) On Nurses' Qualifications. The respondents were selected five items as the most important qualifications. Specially, 17.4% of the respondents indicated specialized knowledge, 15.3% the nurses' health, 10.6％ satisfaction for nursing profession, 9.8% the experience need, 9.2% comprehension and cooperation, while warm personality as nursing qualifications have a tendency of being lighted. 11) On the Priority of Nursing Care The respondents were selected three items as the most important component. Most of the respondents view the client's physical, spiritual: economic points as important components of nursing care. They showed each 36.8%, 27.6%, 13.8% while educational ones showed 1.8%. 12) On Purpose of Nursing Care. The respondents were selected four items as the most important purpose. Specially,29.3% of the respondents indicated curing illness for clients, 21.3% preventing illness for client 17.4% decreasing pain, 15.3% surviving. 13) On the Analysis of Important Nursing Care Ranging from 5 point to 25 point, the nurses' qualification are concentrated at the degree of 95.1%. Ranging from 3 point to 25, the priorities of nursing care are concentrated at the degree of 96.4%. Ranging from 4 point to 16, the purpose of nursing care is concentrated at the degree of 84.0%. 14) The Analysis, of General Characteristics and Facts of Nursing Concept. The correlation between the educational high level and nursing care showed significance. (P < 0.0262). The correction between the educational low level and purpose of nursing care showed significance. (P < 0.002) The correlation between nurses' working yeras and the degree of importance for the purpose of nursing care showed significance (P < 0.0155) Specially, the most affirmative answers were showed from two years to four ones. 15) On Nunes' qualification and its Degree of Importance The correlation between nurses' qualification and its degree of importance showed significance. (r = 0.2172, p< 0.001) 0.005) B. General characteristics of the subjects The mean age of the subject was 39 ; with 38.6% with in the age range of 20-29 ; 52.6% were male; 57.9％ were Schizophrenia; 35.1% were graduated from high school or high school dropouts; 56.l％ were not have any religion; 52.6% were unmarried； 47.4% were first admission; 91.2% were involuntary admission patients. C. Measurement of anxiety variables. 1. Measurement tools of affective anxiety in this study demonstrated high reliability (.854). 2. Measurement tools of somatic anxiety in this study demonstrated high reliability (.920). D. Relationship between the anxiety variables and the general characteristics. 1. Relationship between affective anxiety and general characteristics. 1) The level of female patients were higher than that of the male patient (t = 5.41, p < 0.05). 2) Frequencies of admission were related to affective anxiety, so in the first admission the anxiety level was the highest. (F = 5.50, p < 0.005). 2, Relationship between somatic anxiety and general characteristics. 1) The age range of 30-39 was found to have the highest level of the somatic anxiety. (F = 3.95, p < 0.005). 2) Frequencies of admission were related to the somatic anxiety, so .in first admission the anxiety level was the highest. (F = 9.12, p ＜ 0.005) 0. Analysis of significant anxiety symptoms for nursing intervention. 1. Seven items such as dizziness, mental integration, sweating, restlessness, anxiousness, urinary frequency and insomnia, init. accounted for 96％ of the variation within the first 24 hours after admission. 2. Seven items such as fear, paresthesias, restlessness, sweating insomnia, init., tremors and body aches and pains accounted for 84% of the variation on the 10th day after admission.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 1993

This study was carried out to investigate agreement, content and demand for home nursing care of hospital inpatients in brain, spain and musculoskeletal diseases .The data was collected by interviewing with 242 patients who were hospitalized in university hospital on Taegu, from September 6,60 October 9, 1993. Of 242 patients, 66.1% agreed to home nusing care system and rate of agreement was highest between 30 years to 49 years of age as 75.5%, in middle urban area residents as 75.9% and was lowest in medicaid as 40.0% in general chareacteristics. The rate of agreement according to type of diagnosis was highest inpatients with spinal diseases as 75.6% according to functional status was the highest in patients who had daily living activity freely as 69.4% according to prognosis in patients at terminal stage as 80.0% and the rate of agreement to home nursing care of patients who wanted early discharege was 73.9%. The first-ranking reasom of agreement to home nursing care was asking for continuous relationship with doctor as 37.3% and there was statistically significant difference in reasons of agreement to home nursing care according to functional status of patients. The first-ranking reason of eary discharge among patients who wanted early discharge(74.8%) was because of long time stay in hospital. Among 23 items of nursing activity that patient wanted, the first-ranking item was recovery promotion, prevention of complication, education and counseling for health as 76.4%, drug management was 2nd-ranking item as 62.1% and the third was regular checking of vital signs as 55.9%. The lowest item of demand for home unring care was hospice care(3.9%) and airway keep(9.1%).

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2015

Purpose : The pre-treatment QA using Portal dosimetry for Volumetric Arc Therapy To analyze whether maintaining the reproducibility depending on various factors. Materials and Methods : Test was used for TrueBeam STx$^{TM}$ (Ver.1.5, Varian, USA). Varian Eclipse Treatment planning system(TPS) was used for planning with total of seven patients include head and neck cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and cervical cancer was established for a Portal dosimetry QA plan. In order to measure these plans, Portal Dosimetry application (Ver.10) (Varian) and Portal Vision aS1000 Imager was used. Each Points of QA was determined by dividing, before and after morning treatment, and the after afternoon treatment ended (after 4 hours). Calibration of EPID(Dark field correction, Flood field correction, Dose normalization) was implemented before Every QA measure points. MLC initialize was implemented after each QA points and QA was retried. Also before QA measurements, Beam Ouput at the each of QA points was measured using the Water Phantom and Ionization chamber(IBA dosimetry, Germany). Results : The mean values of the Gamma pass rate(GPR, 3%, 3mm) for every patients between morning, afternoon and evening was 97.3%, 96.1%, 95.4% and the patient's showing maximum difference was 95.7%, 94.2% 93.7%. The mean value of GPR before and after EPID calibration were 95.94%, 96.01%. The mean value of Beam Output were 100.45%, 100.46%, 100.59% at each QA points. The mean value of GPR before and after MLC initialization were 95.83%, 96.40%. Conclusion : Maintain the reproducibility of the Portal Dosimetry as a VMAT QA tool required management of the various factors that can affect the dosimetry.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.119-133
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• 1997

In spite of much progress in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) program, the pregnancy rate remains at 20-30%, and the endometrial implantation rate per embryo transferred at 10-15%. As a result, about 90% of embryos may fail to implant to the endometrium, and many attempts such as optimization of follicular development, improvement of in vitro culture system including coculture, and micromanipulation of zona pellucida have been made to improve embryonic implantation after IVF-ET. Recently, several procedures of assisted hatching (AH) using micromanipulation have been introduced, and pregnancies and births have been obtained after AH. To develop and establish AH as an effective procedure to improve embryonic implantation, AH with partial zona dissection (PZD) was performed in 116 cycles of 89 infertile couples who had previous repeated failures of standard IVF-ET more than two times (Group I: 71 cycles in 54 patients), or who had implantation failure of embryos with good quality (Group II: 15 cycles in 13), or who had undergone AH without specific indication (Group III: 30 cycles in 22) from January, 1995 to Februry, 1996, and the outcomes of AH were analyzed according to pregnancy rate. The number of oocytes retrieved after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) was $9.9{\pm}7.1$ in Group I, $11.5{\pm}4.5$ in Group II, and $7.9{\pm}6.4$ in Group III. The number of embryos transferred after AH was $4.7{\pm}1.8$ in Group I, $5.3{\pm}1.3$ in Group II, and $3.5{\pm}2.4$ in Group III. The mean cumulative embryo score (CES) was $56.8{\pm}30.0$ in Group I, $76.1{\pm}35.9$ in Group II, and $38.5{\pm}29.9$ in Group III. The overall clinical pregnancy rate per cycle and per patient was 12.7% (9/71) and 16.7% (9/54) in Group I, 33.3% (5/15) and 38.5% (5/13) in Group II, and 6.7% (2/30) and 9.1% (2/22) in Group III, respectively. There were significant differences in the numbers of oocytes retrieved and embryos transferred, CES, and the clinical pregnancy rate per cycle among three groups. There was a significant inverse correlation between basal serum FSH level and CES, and no pregnancy occurred in patients with CES less than 20. In conclusion, AH of human embryos with PZD prior to ET has improved the implantation and pregnancy rates in IVF-ET patients with the past history of repeated failures, especially in spite of transfer of embryos with good quality, and AH will provide a range of novel techniques which may contribute much to effective management of infertile couples.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.79-82
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• 1993

From October 1989 to March 1992, ten patients diagnosed as primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma were treated with radiation therapy at Asan Medical Center. To obtain pathologic diagnosis, five patients had stereotactic biopsy and the others underwent craniotomy & tumor removal. According to the classification by International Working Formulation, seven of 10 patients showed diffuse large cell types and the remaining 3 had diffuse mixed cell types. Computed tomographic scans of the brain disclosed solitary (6 cases) or multiple (4 cases) intracranial lesions. All patients received 4000 cGy/20 fx to the whole brain followed by an additional 2000 cGy/10 fx boost to the primary lesion. Six patients with initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF involvement were treated with whole brain irradiation and intrathecal Methotrexate (IT-MTX) chemotherapy. One of them received an additional spinal irradiation after 3 cycles of IT-MTX chemotherapy because of MTX induced arachnoiditis. One patient received 3 cycles of systemic chemotherapy prior to rodiation therapy and one received 5 cycles of salvage chemotherapy for recurrence. With a median follow up time of 8 months, all patients were followed from 7 to 26 months. Radiologically seven patients showed complete remission and the remaining three showed partial remission at one month after radiotherapy. The 1 and 2 year survival rate was $86{\%}\;and\;69{\%}$ respectively. Until now, two patients expired at 7 and 14 months. These patients developed extensive CSF seeding followed by local failure. Considering initial good response to radiation therapy and low incidence of extraneural dissemination in primary CNS lymphoma, we propose to increase total tumor dose to the primary lesion by hyperfractionated radiotherapy or stereotactic radiosurgery. For the patients with CSF involvement at diagnosis, we propose craniospinal irradiation with IT MTX chemotherapy.