• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.313-320
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• 2014

Purpose : The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficiency of Coaxial MLC VMAT plan (Using $273^{\circ}$ and $350^{\circ}$ collimator angle) That the leaf motion direction aligned with axis of OAR (Organ at risk, It means spinal cord or cauda equine in this study.) compare to Universal MLC VMAT plan (using $30^{\circ}$ and $330^{\circ}$ collimator angle) for spine SBRT. Materials and Methods : The 10 cases of spine SBRT that treated with VMAT planned by Coaxial MLC and Varian TBX were enrolled. Those cases were planned by Eclipse (Ver. 10.0.42, Varian, USA), PRO3 (Progressive Resolution Optimizer 10.0.28) and AAA (Anisotropic Analytic Algorithm Ver. 10.0.28) with coplanar $360^{\circ}$ arcs and 10MV FFF (Flattening filter free). Each arc has $273^{\circ}$ and $350^{\circ}$ collimator angle, respectively. The Universal MLC VMAT plans are based on existing treatment plans. Those plans have the same parameters of existing treatment plans but collimator angle. To minimize the dose difference that shows up randomly on optimizing, all plans were optimized and calculated twice respectively. The calculation grid is 0.2 cm and all plans were normalized to the target V100%=90%. The indexes of evaluation are V10Gy, D0.03cc, Dmean of OAR (Organ at risk, It means spinal cord or cauda equine in this study.), H.I (Homogeneity index) of the target and total MU. All Coaxial VMAT plans were verified by gamma test with Mapcheck2 (Sun Nuclear Co., USA), Mapphan (Sun Nuclear Co., USA) and SNC patient (Sun Nuclear Co., USA Ver 6.1.2.18513). Results : The difference between the coaxial and the universal VMAT plans are follow. The coaxial VMAT plan is better in the V10Gy of OAR, Up to 4.1%, at least 0.4%, the average difference was 1.9% and In the D0.03cc of OAR, Up to 83.6 cGy, at least 2.2 cGy, the average difference was 33.3 cGy. In Dmean, Up to 34.8 cGy, at least -13.0 cGy, the average difference was 9.6 cGy that say the coaxial VMAT plans are better except few cases. H.I difference Up to 0.04, at least 0.01, the average difference was 0.02 and the difference of average total MU is 74.1 MU. The coaxial MLC VMAT plan is average 74.1 MU lesser then another. All IMRT verification gamma test results for the coaxial MLC VMAT plan passed over 90.0% at 1mm / 2%. Conclusion : Coaxial MLC VMAT treatment plan appeared to be favorable in most cases than the Universal MLC VMAT treatment planning. It is efficient in lowering the dose of the OAR V10Gy especially. As a result, the Coaxial MLC VMAT plan could be better than the Universal MLC VMAT plan in same MU.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.671-677
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• 2017

In this study, scattering factors affecting the quality of medical images were quantitatively analyzed and investigated. MCNPX simulation was conducted by using ANSI phantom, made of tissue equivalent materials, to calculate the scattering ratio occurred by the increase of the object thickness. Then, the result of the simulation was compared with the result of actual radiation measurement. In addition, we evaluated the image quality by the RMS evaluation, RSD and NPS analysis using X-ray images acquired with increasing object thickness. Furthermore, the scattering ratio was analyzed by increasing the thickness of acrylic phantom on chest phantom. The result showed that the scattering ratio was increased to 57.2%, 62.4%, and 66.8% from 48.9%, respectively, when the acrylic phantom thickness was increased by 1 inch from 6.1 inches. The results of MCNPX simulation and the actual measured scattering dose showed similar results. Also, as a result of RMS measurement from acquired x-ray images, the standard deviation decreased as the object thickness increased. However, in the RSD analysis considering the average incident dose, the results were increased from 0.028 to 0.039, 0.051, 0.062 as the acrylic phantom thickness was increased from 6.1 inches to 7.1 inch, 8.1 inch, and 9.1 inch, respectively. It can be seen that the increase of the scattering effect due to the increase of the object thickness reduces the SNR. Also, the NPS results obtained by measuring scattered radiation incident on the detector resulted in the increase of the noise as the object thickness increased.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.217-222
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• 1999

Purpose : To evaluate prognostic factors and survival rates of the patients who received radiation therapy for locally recurrent uterine cervical cancer after curative surgery. Materials and Methods : Between October 1983 and July 1990, fifty three patients who received radiation therapy for locally recurrent cervical cancer after curative surgery at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea were analysed retrospectively. Age at diagnosis ranged from 33 to 69 years (median 53 years). Pathological analysis showed that forty five ($84.9\%$) patients had squamous cell carcinoma, seven ($13.2\%$) patients had adenocarcinoma, and one (1.9%) patient had adenosquamous cell carcinoma. The interval between hysterectomy and tumor recurrence ranged from 2 months to 25 years (mean 34.4 months). The recurrent sites were vaginal stump in 41 patients ($77.4\%$) and pelvic side wall in 12 patients ($22.6\%$). Recurrent tumor size was devided into two groups : less than 3 cm in 43 patients ($81.1\%$) and more than 3 cm in 10 patients ($18.9\%$). External beam irradiation of whole pelvis was done first up to 46.8 Gy to 50.4 Gy in 5 weeks to 6 weeks, followed by either external beam boost to the recurrent site in 18 patients ($34\%$) or intracavitary irradiation in 24 patients ($45.3\%$). Total dose of radiation ranged from 46.8 Gy to 111 Gy (median 70.2 Gy). Follow up period ranged from 2 to 153 months with a median of 35 months. Results : Overall response rate was $66\%$ (35/53). Among them, six patients ($17.1\%$) relapsed between 7 months and 116 months after radiation therapy (mean 47.7 months), Therefore overall recurrence rate was $45.3\%$. Overall five-year actuarial survival rate was $78.9\%$ and distant failure rate was $10\%$ (5/50). The significant prognostic factors affecting survival rate were interval between primary surgery and tumor recurrence (p=0.0055), recurrent tumor size (p=0.0039), and initial response to radiation therapy (p=0.0428). Complications were observed in 10 ($20/%$) patients, which included mild to moderate lower gastrointestinal, genitourinary, or skin manifestations. One patient died of pulmonary embolism just after intracavitary irradiation. Conclustion : Radiation therapy is the effective treatment for the patients with locally recurrent cervical cancer after curative surgery. These results suggest that interval between primary surgery and tumor recurrence, recurrent tumor size, and initial response to radiation therapy were significant prognostic factors for recurrent cervical cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.427-434
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• 2022

Atrial fibrillation treatment includes 3D RFCA and Cryo-balloon ablation. Both procedures have in common that they enter after understanding the structure of the heart using angiography equipment. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the effect of exposure according to the procedure time can be a threat to both the patient and the operator, so this study aims to confirm the relationship between the total ablation time and the effect of radiation exposure. We used follow-up data (retrospective) from 41 patients who underwent coronary angiography and arrhythmia at the same time from March 2019 to July 2022. The range for total ablation time was based on the recorded data from the start to the end of the total ablation. The end point of 3D RFCA was when the ablation was completed for 4 pulmonary veins, and in the case of Cryo-balloon ablation, the data that succeeded in electrical insulation were included. As a result of analyzing the total ablation time, the time taken for Cryo-balloon ablation was 1037.29±103.66 s, which was 2448.61 s faster than 3D RFCA using 3485.9±405.71 s, and was statistically significant. (p<0.05) As a result of analyzing the total fluoroscopy time, the exposure time for 3D RFCA was 2573.75±239.08 s, which was less by 1717.15 s than the exposure time for Cryo-balloon ablation, 4290.9±420.42 s, and was statistically significant. In the case of total area dose product, 3D RFCA was 59.04±13.1 uGy/m², which was lower than Cryo-balloon ablation 980.6±658.07 uGy/m² by 921.56 uGy/m², which was statistically significant. As the insulation time of the Cryo-balloon ablation is shorter than that of the 3D RFCA, the method using the Cryo-balloon ablation is considered to be effective when the patient's condition is not good and a quick procedure is required. However, in patients with permanent Atrial fibrillation, there is a high probability of structural changes in the heart, so it is considered that 3D RFCA is better than Cryo-balloon ablation, which is difficult to manipulate.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.100-107
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• 1999

Purpose: This is to evaluate the acute complication, resection rate, and tumor down-staging after pre-operative concurrent chemoradiotherapy for stage IIIA (N2) non-small cell lung cancer. Materials and Methods Fifteen patients with non-small cell lung cancer were enrolled in this study from May 1997 to June 1998 in Samsung Medical Center. The median age of the patients was 61 (range, 45~67) years and male to female ratio was 12:3. Pathologic types were squamous cell carcinoma (11) and adenocarcinoma (4). Pre-operative clinical tumor stages were cT1 in 2 patients, cT2 in T2, and cT3 in 1 and all were N2. Ten patients were proved to be N2 with mediastinoscopic biopsy and five had clinically evident mediastinal Iymph node metastases on the chest CT scans. Pre-operative radiation therapy field included the primary tumor, the ipsilateral hilum, and the mediastinum. Total radiation dose was 45 Gy over 5 weeks with daily dose of 1.8 Gy. Pre-operative concurrent chemotherapy consisted of two cycles of intravenous cis-Platin (100 mg/m$^{2}$) on day 1 and oral Etoposide (50 mg/m$^{2}$/day) on days 1 through 14 with 4 weeks' interval. Surgery was followed after the pre-operative re-evaluation including chest CT scan in 3 weeks of the completion of the concurrent chemoradiotherapy if there was no evidence of disease progression. Results : Full dose radiation therapy was administered to all the 15 patients. Planned two cycles of chemotherapy was completed in 11 patients and one cycle was given to four. One treatment related death of acute respiratory distress syndrome occurred In 15 days of surgery. Hospital admission was required in three patients including one with radiation pneumonitis and two with neutropenic fever. Hematologic complications and other acute complications including esophagitis were tolerable. Resection rate was 92.3% (12/l3) in 13 patients excluding two patients who refused surgery. Pleural seeding was found in one patient after thoracotomy and tumor resection was not feasible. Post-operative tumor stagings were pT0 in 3 patients, pTl in 6, and pT2 in 3. Lymph node status findings were pN0 in 8 patients, pN1 in 1, and pN2 in 3. Pathologic tumor down-staging was 61.5% (8/13) including complete response in three patients ($23.7%). Tumor stage was unchanged in four patients (30.8%) and progression was in one (7.7%). Conclusions : Pre-operative concurrent chemoradiotherapy for Stage IIIA (N2) non-small cell lung cancer demonstrated satisfactory results with no increased severe acute complications. This treatment shceme deserves more patinet accrual with long-term follow-up.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.49-54
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• 2009

Purpose: To report on the clinical outcome of patients with stage I testicular seminoma by postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) or surveillance after radical inguinal orchiectomy. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective review of 32 stage I pure seminoma patients treated between 1996 and 2005 at the Samsung Medical Center. Twenty two of the patients were treated by PORT, which was directed at the paraaortic lymphatics with a median dose of 25.2 Gy in 14 fractions for 3 weeks. The 10 remaining patients were managed by surveillance. The median follow-up period was 96 months with a range of 24 to 155 months. Results: Clinically, most patients presented with a testicular mass or discomfort. Two of the patients had a history of undescended testes. Pathologically, 23 of the patients had intratubular germ cell neoplasia with seminoma. Both recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of patients treated by PORT were 100%. In the control group, 1 of the 10 patients suffered a para-aortic lymph node relapse. The RFS and OS rates of the surveillance group were 88.9% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: No difference in survival was observed between the two groups. Moreover, symptom recurrence was only observed in 1 patient in the control group. The use of PORT may reduce the risk of relapse. With the availability of effective diagnostic and salvage modalities, surveillance monitoring may be considered for patients in good compliance.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.267-275
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• 1993

Eighty five patients of oral cavity cancer, treated with radiation at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, during the period from March 1985 to September 1990 were analyzed retrospectively. Among 85 patients, 37 patients were treated with radiation only and 48 patients were treated with radiation following surgery. And 70 patients received external irradiation only by $^{60}Co$ with or without electron, the others were 7 patients for external irradiation plus interstitial implantation and 8 patients for external irradiation plus oral cone electron therapy. Primary sites were mobile tongue for 40 patients, mouth floor for 17 patients, palate for 12 patients, gingiva including retromolar trigone for 10 patients, buccal mucosa for 5 patients, and lip for 1 patient. According to pathologic classification, squamous cell carcinoma was the most common (77 patients). According to AJC TNM stage, stage I + II were 28 patients and stage III+IV were 57 patients. Acturial overall survival rate at 3 years was $43.9\%,$ 3 year survival rates were $60.9\%$ for stage I + II, and $23.1\%$ for stage III+IV, respectively. As a prognostic factor, primary T stage was a significant factor (p<0.01). The others, age, location, lymph node metastasis, surgery, radiation dose, and cell differentiation were not statistically significant. Among those factors, radiation plus surgery was more effective than radiation only in T3+T4 or in any N stage although it was not statistically sufficient (p<0.1). From those results, it was conclusive that definitive radiotherapy was more effective than surgery especially In the view of pertainig of anatomical integrity and function in early stage, and radiation plus surgery was considered to be better therapeutic tool in advanced stage.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 1994

Since Jan. 1992, authors have conducted a pilot study to treat malignant glioma with multiple daily fractionated(MDF) radiation therapy and this paper presents the outcome compared MDF to conventional factionated(CF) radiation therapy Between Sep. 1989 and Jan. 1993, forty three patients with high grade glioma of brain except brain stem glioma were treated: nineteen patients were treated with CF radiation therapy and 24 patients were treated with MDF radiation therapy. In CF radiation therapy, total dose was 6300cGy/35fx in 7 weeks, which 5040cGy was delivered to the initial target volume and 1260cGy to reduced target volume. And in MDF radiation therapy, total dose was 6400cGy/40fx in 4 weeks, which 3200cGy was delivered to the initial target volume as 160cGy 2 times daily 6hr apart. All patients had histologically confirmed anaplastic astrocytoma(AA) of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) with stereotactic biopsy or craniotomy for subtotal or gross tumor resection. The range of follow-up was 7 months to 4 years with a median follow-up of 9 months. The Median survival from surgery was 9 months for all patients. The median survival was 9 months and 10 months for MDF group and CF group and 10 months and 9.5 months for glioblastoma multiforme and anaplastic astrocytoma, respectively. In 36 patients with follow-up CT scan or MRI scan, disease status was evaluated according to treatment groups, Four patients(GBM:3, AA:1) of 21 patients in MDF group, were alive with no evidence of disease, while none of patient was alive with no evidence of disease in CF group. The progression of disease had occurred in 20 patients, 11 patients and 9 patients in MDF group and CF group, respectively All of these patients showed in-field progression of disease, Four of 11 patients($27\%$) in MDF group showed the new leasion outside of the treatment field, while 5 of 9 patients($56\%$) in CF group. In our study the prognosis was not influenced by age, KPS, grade, extent of surgery and different fractional scheduled radiation therapy. Authors concluded that MDF regimen was well tolerated and shortened the treatment period from 7 weeks to 4 weeks without compromising results. We believe that further follow-up is needed to assess the role of MDF.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2014

Purpose: The effective half life of I-131 is useful to calculate radiation dose, period of hospitalization, and exposure dose of surrounding people from patient. However, it is difficult to measure. This study estimates the effective half life in whole body and thyroid in using of value of residual radioactivity obtained from the early and delay images of Dual time I-131 whole body scan. Also, the correlations between the effective half life and serum creatinine, GFR, and administration dose were investigated in this study. Materials and Methods: The targets were 50 patients administration high dose of I-131 from February to August in 2013, having normal range of serum creatinine and over $30{\mu}IU/mL$ of TSH levels. After administration radioactive I-131, the early scan in the 3rd day and the delay scan in the 5-6th days were performed. To measure the residual radioactivity in the whole body and thyroid, ROI was set and then background radioactivity was corrected to estimate. The effective half life was estimated by calculating the ratio of measured values between the early and delay images. To compare the effective half lives of the whole body and thyroid, it was analyzed by Independent t-test, and each correlation of the effective half life, GFR, serum creatinine, and the dose of administration were analyzed by calculating the pearson's correlation coefficient. All of the analysis were determined to be statistically significant when P<0.05. Results: The effective half life of the whole body was $17.06{\pm}5.50$ hours and of the thyroid was $17.22{\pm}5.41$ hours. The two effective half life did not show significant difference (P=0.887). As the value of GFR was increased, the effective half life of whole body (r=-0.407, P=0.003) and of thyroid (r=-0.473, P=0.001) were significantly decreased; as the value of serum creatinine was increased, the effective half life of whole body (r=0.309, P=0.029) and of thyroid (r=0.371, P=0.008) were significantly increased. In the administration dose, effective half life did not have correlations. Conclusion: The effective half life of I-131 of patients treated for their thyroids were estimated only by using the images of Dual time I-131 whole body scan. Also, the correlations with the effective life, GFR, and serum creatinine were examined. This study might be utilized for a study on optimization for the period of hospitalization of patients treated by high dose of I-131 and on evaluation for internal absorbed dose of MIRD schema in application of the effective half life.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2020

Purpose It is intended to figure out the errors derived from changes in depth and volume when measuring the Standard source and ^99mTc-pertechnetate by using a Dose calibrator. Then recommend appropriate measurement depth and volume. Materials and Methods As a Dose calibrator, CRC-15βeta and CRC-15R (Capintec, New Jersey, USA) was used, and the measurement sources were ⁵⁷Co, ¹³³Ba, ¹³⁷Cs and ^99mTc-pertechnetate was also adopted due to its high frequency of use. The Standard source was respectively measured the changes according to its depth without changing the volume, in a range of 0 cm to 15 cm from the bottom of the ion chamber. ^99mTc-pertechnetate was measured at each depth by changing the volume with 0.1 mL, 0.3 mL, 0.5 mL, 0.7 mL and 0.9 mL Respectively. And the depth range was from 0 cm to 15 cm at the bottom of the ion chamber. Results In the case of Standard source ⁵⁷Co, ¹³³Ba, ¹³⁷Cs and ^99mTc-pertechnetate, there were significant differences according to the measurement depth(p<0.05). ^99mTc-pertechnetate has a negative correlation coefficient according to the depth, and the error of the measured value was negligible at a depth from 0 cm to 7 cm at 0.3 mL and 0.5 mL, and the range of error increased as the volume increased. Conclusion In clinical practice, it is sometimes installed differently than the Standard depth recommended by the equipment company. If it's measured at the recommended depth and volume, it could be thought that unnecessary exposure of the operator and the patient will be reduced, and more accurate radiation exams will be possible in quantitative analysis.