• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.59-70
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• 1989

Cervix cancer is the most common female cancer in Korea. In spite of their relatively local invasive tendency, still $44\%$ of patient will develop recurrent cancer. This result suggests that more aggressive local treatment may increase the cure rate but increased complication risk also cannot be avoidable. Various institutions proposed different treatment regimen, but recommended dose were about 4500 cGy for whole pelvis and 8000 cGy at point A, even though they agreed that those doses may not be satisfactory for control of bulky disease. 96 cases of invasive cervical cancer, treated with postoperative or primary radiation therapy were analyzed to determine the complication rate and prognostic factor in our treatment regimen Which is $5500\~1000 CGy$ higher than Other institution. Mean follow up duration was 21 months. Symptomatic patients including mild but persistent abdominal discomfort was $46\%$, but only 1 patient $(1\%)$ had operative treatment because of incomplete obstruction of small bowel. Most symptoms appeared within 12 months and most common complaints were frequent bowel movement. Barium enema and sigmoidoscopy were performed for persistent symptomatic patients. Only one patient had abnormal finding in barium enema which showed inefficiency of this method for detecting bowel complication. Patient's age, total tumor dose, total TDF, rectal dose were not significant risk factors for complication, but boost dose, previous history of operation had some relationship with complication risk. Even though dose of point A and rectum is $500\~1,000cGy$ higher than other institution, such a low rate of severe complications may suggest that fear of complications should not be overestimated than cure rate and the possibility of more aggressive treatment for better local control should not be underestimated.

• 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.11 no.2
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• pp.387-395
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• 1993

To identify pretreatment prognostic factors in carcinoma of the uterine cervix, a retrospective analysis was undertaken of 510 patients treated with curative radiation therapy in Seoul National University Hospital during the 7 year period, from March 1979 through December 1986. According to FIGO classification,35 patients were stage I B,89 were stage IIA, 232 were stage IIB,8 were stage IIIA, 134 were IIIB, and 12 were stage IVA. Five year locoregional control (LRC) rates in stage I B, II A, II B, IIIA, IIIB, and IVA were $79\%,78\%,70\%,58\%,51\%\;and\;27\%,$ respectively. Five year disease free survival (DFS) rates were $76\%,67\%,60\$,57\%,40\%,\;and\;25\%,$ respectively. Overall survival (OS) rates at five years were $82\%,72\%,67\%,67\%,51\%,\;and\;33\%,$ respectively. In univariate analyses, stage, age, initial hemoglobin level, type of histology, tumor size, and several CT findings including pelvic lymph node (LN) status, paraaortic lymph node (PAN) status, extent of parametrial invasion, bladder invasion, and rectal invasion were significant factors in terms of LRC. All these factors and elevation of BUN or creatinine were associated with DFS. In terms of overall survival, stage, initial hemoglobin level, type of histology, tumor size, elevation of BUN or creatinine, and five CT findings associated with LRC were prognostically significant. In multivariate analysis excluding CT findings, stage IV disease, non-squamous histology, and tumor size $\ge$4 cm were associated with poor LRC and DFS. Stage IV disease and tumor size significantly affected OS. in multivariate analysis including CT findings, histology, tumor size, and pelvic LN status on CT were uniformly significant in terms of LRC, DFS, and 05, PAN status on CT affected overall survival only.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.271-276
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• 1991

A series of 510 patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix given the curative radiation therapy from March 1979 through December 1986 was evaluated to determine the value of intravenous pyelography (IVP), cystoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and abdomino-pelvic CT as staging work-up prior to treatment. On IVP and cystoscopy, $10.7\%$(49/456) and $5.3\%$(24/452) showed abnormality, respectively, but only $0.7\%$(3/413) did on sigmoidoscopy. As a result of these work-ups prerequisite to FIGO staging, twenty six ($5.1\%$) out of 510 patients were upstaged from the stage determined by the findings of physical examination alone. The proportions of upstaging in each stage were as follows; none in stage IB (35), IIA (89) and IIIA (8), $7.9\%$(20/252) in stage IIB (14 patients to FIGO stage IIIB, 6 patients to FIGO stage IVA), and $4.8\%$(6/126) in stage IIIB (all to FIGO stage IVA). Positive findings of staging work-ups were found only in patients with advanced stages of stage IIB or over determined by physical examination alone but not in those with earlier stages. CT was performed in 337 patients. CT detected pelvic lymph node (LN) enlargement in $25.2\%$ (85/337) and paraaortic LN enlargement in $7.4\%$(25/337). Pelvic LN positivity was well correlated with increasing stage but paraaortic LN positivity was not. In the evaluation of parametrial involvement, CT findings were in accordance with those of physical examination only in $65.6\%$ (442/674). When compared with endoscopic studeies, CT had much lower positive predictive value than negative predicitive value in the evaluation of adjacent organ invasion. The staging work-ups should be individualized by the disease extent of each patient, and then the efficiency of work-uus may be increased without compromising the appropriate FIGO staging and treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.277-284
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• 1991

Survival data, prognostic factors, and patterns of failure were retrospectively analyzed for a total of 76 patients with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix treated between January 1981 and December 1987, which represents $4.1\%$ of all primary cervical carcinomas treated, at Department of Radiation Oncology, Yensei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine. The mean age of the patients was 49 years (range, $27\~79$ years) and the peak incidence was in the group 50 to 59 years of age. More half of the patients were postmenopausal (46/76= $60.5\%$). Most patients ($76\%$) had abnormal vaginal bleeding either alone or in combination with other symptoms. The proportion of stage IIb was $43.4\%$. There were 4 major histologic subtypes: pure adenocarcinoma (48/76=$63.2\%$), adenosquamous carcinoma (20/76=$26.3\%$), papillary (5/76=$6.6\%$) and clear cell carcinoma (3/76=$3.9\%$). Of the many clinicopathologic variables evaluated for prognosis, the most significant prognostic factors were stage of disease and the size of tumor. The overall 5-year survival rate was $68\%$, and the 5-year survival rates for stage Ib, II and III were $90\%,\;66\%\;and\;54\%$, respectively. Control of pelvic tumors was achieved in $93.8\%,\;90.2\%\;and\;50.0\%$ of cases of stage Ib, II and III disease, respectively. In present study, treatment modalities (radiation therapy alone/combined operative and radiation therapy) did not affect the local control of tumor and the survival.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.219-225
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• 1992

Fifty patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix received curative radiotherapy by external irradiation of the whole pelvis and intracavitary radiation at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital from September, 1983 to October, 1986. External beam whole pelvic irradiation was done first up to 4500-5940 cGy in 5 weeks to 6.5 weeks, followed by an intracavitary radiation. Total dose of radiation to point A varied from 6500 cGy to 11344 cGy (average 6764 cGy). Of the 50 patients, one patient was lost to follow up and follow up period of the remaining 49 patients ranged from 3 months to 93 months (median 32 months). According to FIGO classification, 6 ($12.2\%$) were in stage Ib, 6 ($12.2\%$) in stage IIa, 25 ($51\%$) in stage IIb, 7 ($14\%$) in stage III, and 5 ($10.2\%$) in stage IV. Age of the patients ranged from 33 to 76 years (median 60 years). Pathologically, fourty six ($94\%$) patients had squamous cell carcinoma, 2 ($4\%$) had adenocarcinoma, and 1 ($2\%$) had adenosquamous cell carcinoma. Overall response rate was $84\%$. 5-year survival rate was $49\%$ for entire group ($75\%$ for stage Ib, $83\%$ for Stage IIa, $42.5\%$ for stage IIb, $25\%$ for stage III, $40\%$ for stage IV). Complications were observed in 11 ($22.4\%$) patients, who revealed rectal complications with most common frequency. Others were self limiting trifle ones such as wet desquamation, fatigue, mild leukopenia, etc. The correlation of the survival rate with various factors (age, dose, Hb level, pelvic lymph node status, performance status, local recurrence) was evaluated but showed no statistical significance except the age and local recurrence in this series; survival of patients less than 50 years of age was worse than that of the older, and the presence of local recurrence had worse prognosis (p<0.05).

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate treatment results in terms of the survival and failure patterns subsequent to radiation therapy in recurrent cervical cancer, fellowing primary surgery. Material and Methods: Between January 1990 and December 1999, 27 patients, with recurrent cervical cancer following primary surgery, were subsequently treated with radiation in the Department of Radiation Oncology, at the Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. Their median age was 48, ranging from 31 to 70 years old. With regard to the Initial FIGO stage on presentation, 20 and 7 patients were stages I and II, respectively. Twenty three patients had squamous cell carcinomas and 4 had adenocarcinomas. The time interval from the primary surgery to the recurrence ranged from 2 to 90 months with a median of 29 months. The recurrent sites were the vaginal cuff alone, the pelvic cavity and combined recurrence in 14, 9 and 4 patients, respectively. Radiation was peformed, with external and vaginal intracavitary radiation in 13 patients, external radiation alone in 13 and vaginal intracavitary radiation alone in another one. The median follow-up period was 55 months, ranging from 6 to 128 months. Results: The five year disease free survival (5y DFS) and five year overall survival (5y OS) rates were 68.2 and 71.9$\%$, respectively. There was a marginal statistically significant difference in the 5y DFS in relation to the recurrent site (5y DFS, 85.7$\%$ in vaginal cuff recurrence alone, 53.3$\%$ in pelvic cavity recurrence, p=0.09). There was no difference in the survival according to the time interval between the primary surgery and a recurrence. There was only a 7$\%$ local failure rate in the patients with a vaginal cuff recurrence. The major failure patterns were local failure in the patients with pelvic cavity recurrence, and distant failure in the patients with a combined recurrence. There were no complications above grade 3 after the radiation therapy. Conclusion: Radiation therapy was safe and effective treatment for a recurrent carcinoma of the uterine cervix following primary surgery, especially the external beam radiation and vaginal intracavitary irradiation achieved the best results in the patients with a vaginal cuff recurrence following primary surgery.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.230-236
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• 2001

Purpose : To evaluate treatment results in terms of local control, complications and survival after reirraidiation in recurrent cervical cancer following definite radiation therapy. Material and methods : From November 1987 through March 1998, eighteen patients with recurrent cervical cancer following definite radiation therapy were subsequently treated with reirradiation at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. In regard to the initial FIGO stage, one patient was stage la, five were stage IIa, three were IIb, two were IIb and two were IVa. The age range was 37 to 79 years old with median age of 57. The time interval from initial definite radiation therapy to recurrence ranged from 6 to 122 months with a median of 58 months. The recurrent sites were the uterine cervix in seven patients, vagina in ten and pelvic lymph node in one. Reirradiation was peformed with external radiation and intracavitary radiation in twelve patients, external radiation and implantation in four and external radiation alone in two. The range of external radiation dose was $2,100\~5,400\;cGy$ and the range of the total radiation dose was $3,780\~8,550\;cGy$. The follow-up periods ranged from 8 to 20 months with median of 25 following reirradiation. Results : Fourteen of eighteen patients $(78\%)$ had local control just after reirradiation. The two year disease free survival (2YDFS) rate was $53.6\%$. There were statistically significant differences in the 2YDFS according to both recurrent site (2YDFS $28.5\%$ in uterine cervix, $71.4\%$ in vagina, (p=0.03)) and the total dose (2YDFS $71.8\%$ in >6,000 cGy , $25\%$ in $\leq6,000$ cGy, p=0.007). Seven of ten patients who were followed for more than 20 months remain alive and disease free (7/18, $39\%$). Patients treated with external radiation and intracavitary radiation had a higher rate of 2YDFS. Seven patients including 4 patients with no local control experienced local failure in the uterus or vagina and two patients died with distant metastasis. Complications included rectal bleeding in 3 patients, bowel obstruction treated with surgery in two, hematuria in one, radiation cystitis in two, soft tissue swelling in two and vaginal necrosis spontaneously healed in one. There was no statistical difference in complications according to the total dose or the time to recurrence from initial radiation. Conclusion : In patients with recurrence following definite radiation therapy in the uterine cervical cancer, reirradiation may be effective but requires an effort to reduce radiation induced severe complications.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.477-483
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• 1998

Purpose : Radiation proctitis and radiation cystitis are frequent and problematic late complications in patients treated with radiation for the uterine cervix cancer. Authors tried to find out the better patient's position in high dose rate intracavitary radiation to reduce the radiation dose of bladder and rectum. Materials and Methods : In 13 patients, Foley Catheters were inserted to patient's bladder and rectum and were ballooned with radioopaque dye. After insertion of a tandem and two ovoids, semi-orthogonal anteroposterior and lateral films were taken in both lithotomy and supine position. The rectal point and bladder point were defined according to the criteria recommended in the ICRU Report 38 with modification. Using these films, all patients' bladder and rectal dose were calculated in both positions (the radiation dose of A point was set to 400 cGy). And also, the distance of bladder and rectum from uterine cervical os was calculated in both positions. Results : The average radiation dose of rectum was 240.7 cGy in lithotomy position and 278.3 cGy in supine position, and the average radiation dose of bladder was 303.5 cGy in lithotomy position and 255.8 cGy in supine position. After the paired t-test, the radiation dose of rectum in lithotomy position was marginally significantly lower than that in supine position, while the radiation dose of bladder in lithotomy position was significantly higher than that in supine position. On the other hand, the average distance between rectum and cervical os was 35.2 mm in lithotomy position and 32.3 mm in supine position. and the average distance between bladder and cervical os was 30.4 mm in lithotomy position and 34.0 mm in supine position. After the paired t-test. the distance between rectum and cervical os in lithotomy position was significantly longer than that in supine position, while the distance between bladder and cervical os in lithotomy position was significantly shorter than that in supine position. Conclusion : The radiation dose of bladder can be reduced in supine position and the radiation dose of rectum can be reduced in lithotomy position, so we can choose appropriate position in each patient.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.149-158
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• 1993

This is a retrospective analysis of 135 patients with invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated with curative radiotherapy from March 1983 through October 1989 at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Kang-Nam 51. Mary's Hospital. Among them, 78 patients received radiotherapy alone and 42 patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and 15 patients were lost to follow up. All patients had follow up from 2 to 106 months (median; 62 months). Age of the patients ranged from 32 to 79 years at presentation (median; 59 years). According to FIGO classification, there were 20 ($16.7{\%}$) in stage IB, 19 ($15.8{\%}$) in stage IIA,49 ($40.8{\%}$) in stage IIB, 5 ($4.2{\%}$) in stage IIIA, 13 ($10.8{\%}$,) in stage IIIB,14 ($11.7{\%}$) in stage IVA. The pathological classification showed 96 ($80.0{\%}$) squamous cell carcinomas, 5 ($4.2{\%}$) adenocarcinomas and 19 ($15.8{\%}$) proven by cytology. The overall 5-year survival rates was $50.8{\%}$, and the 5-year survival rates by stage IB, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IVA was $47.7{\%},\;70.2{\%},\;64.1{\%},\;40.0{\%},\;23.1{\%},\;14.3{\%}$, respectively. The 5-year survival rates was noted $51.2{\%}$ of radiotherapy alone and $50.4{\%}$of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. The overall failure rate was $18.3{\%}$(22/120) including $11.7{\%}$ (14/120) locoregional failure, $5.8{\%}$ (7/120) distant metastasis and $0.8{\%}$(1/120) locoregional failure with distant metastasis. Treatment failure rates by the stages were $15{\%}$ (3/20) in stage IB. $10.5{\%}$ (2/19) in stage IIA, $10.2{\%}$, (5/49) in stage IIB, $20{\%}$ (1/5) in stage IIIA, $61.5{\%}$(8/13) in stage IIB, and $28.6{\%}$ (4/14) in stage IVA. The overall complication rate was $34.2{\%}$(41/120) including wet desquamation $7.5{\%}$, (9/120), diarrhea $6.7{\%}(8/120), radiation proctitis $5.8{\%}$(7/120) in decreasing order. A multivariate analysis of factors influencing the survival showed patient age (p < 0.0291), FIGO stage (p<0.0001), Karnofsky performance status (p<0.0043), initial hemoglobin level (p<0.0001), and intracavitary radiation (p<0.0004), but, no significancy in histology (p<0.29) and treatment method (p < 0.87).