• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 2011

Purpose: The present study compared the difference between intraoperative transrectal ultrasound (iTRUS)-based prostate volume and preplan computed tomography (CT), preplan magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based prostate volume to estimate the number of seeds needed for appropriate dose coverage in permanent brachytherapy for prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: Between March 2007 and March 2011, among 112 patients who underwent permanent brachytherapy with $^{125}I$, 60 image scans of 56 patients who underwent preplan CT (pCT) or preplan MRI (pMRI) within 2 months before brachytherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty-four cases among 30 cases with pCT and 26 cases among 30 cases with pMRI received neoadjuvant hormone therapy (NHT). In 34 cases, NHT started after acquisition of preplan image. The median duration of NHT after preplan image acquisition was 17 and 21 days for cases with pCT and pMRI, respectively. The prostate volume calculated by different modalities was compared. And retrospective planning with iTRUS image was performed to estimate the number of $^{125}I$ seed required to obtain recommended dose distribution according to prostate volume. Results: The mean difference in prostate volume was 9.05 mL between the pCT and iTRUS and 6.84 mL between the pMRI and iTRUS. The prostate volume was roughly overestimated by 1.36 times with pCT and by 1.33 times with pMRI. For 34 cases which received NHT after image acquisition, the prostate volume was roughly overestimated by 1.45 times with pCT and by 1.37 times with pMRI. A statistically significant difference was found between preplan image-based volume and iTRUS-based volume (p<0.001). The median number of wasted seeds is approximately 13, when the pCT or pMRI volume was accepted without modification to assess the required number of seeds for brachytherapy. Conclusion: pCT-based volume and pMRI-based volume tended to overestimate prostate volume in comparison to iTRUS-based volume. To reduce wasted seeds and cost of the brachytherapy, we should take the volume discrepancy into account when we estimate the number of $^{125}I$ seeds for permanent brachytherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3619-3623
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• 2014

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the vaginal dose and toxicity in patients of cervical cancer treated with image guided brachytherapy at our institute. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five patients treated with image based brachytherapy for cervical cancer were included. Vaginal contouring was done on MRI at brachytherapy and with CT scans of subsequent brachytherapy fractions. Dose volume parameters (DVH) were reported in accordance with the GEC-ESTRO guidelines. These were correlated with vaginal toxicity (assessed by CTCAE version 3) and quality of sexual life assessed at one year of completion of treatment. Results: Vaginal shortness was observed in 22 out of 30 (62.8%) patients, Nine (25.7%) had vaginal dryness and in 10 (28.5%) patients, there was contact bleeding. No association could be demonstrated between the dose volume parameters and vaginal toxicity in the present study. Conclusions: The lack of association between dose volume parameters of vagina with vaginal morbidity may be due to uncertainties involved in the delineation of vaginal wall and dosimetry. Future research is required to accurately define vaginal dose distribution to study its correlation with vaginal morbidity. Vaginal morbidity needs to be documented in order to improve the sexual outcome in these patients.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.121-122
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• 2002

The main principle of radiation therapy is to deliver optimum dose to tumor to increase tumor cure probability while minimizing dose to critical normal structure to reduce complications. RTP system is required for proper dose plan in radiation therapy treatment. The main goal of this research is to develop dose model for photon, electron, and brachytherapy, and to display dose distribution on patient images with optimum process. The main items developed in this research includes: (l) user requirements and quality control; analysis of user requirement in RTP, networking between RTP and relevant equipment, quality control using phantom for clinical application (2) dose model in RTP; photon, electron, brachytherapy, modifying dose model (3) image processing and 3D visualization; 2D image processing, auto contouring, image reconstruction, 3D visualization (4) object modeling and graphic user interface; development of total software structure, step-by-step planning procedure, window design and user-interface. Our final product show strong capability for routine and advance RTP planning.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7167-7170
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• 2015

Background: Although 3D image based brachytherapy is currently the standard of treatment in cervical cancer, most of the centres in developing countries still practice orthogonal intracavitary brachytherapy due to financial constraints. The quest for optimum dose and fractionation schedule in high dose rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) is still ongoing. While the American Brachytherapy Society recommends four to eight fractions of each less than 7.5 Gy, there are some studies demonstrating similar efficacy and comparable toxicity with higher doses per fraction. Objective: To assess the treatment efficacy and late complications of HDR ICBT with 9 Gy per fraction in two fractions. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective institutional study in Southern India carried on from $1^{st}$ June 2012 to $31^{st}$ July 2014. In this period, 76 patients of cervical cancer satisfying our inclusion criteria were treated with concurrent chemo-radiation following ICBT with 9 Gy per fraction in two fractions, five to seven days apart. Results: The median follow-up period in the study was 24 months (range 10.6 - 31.2 months). The 2 year actuarial local control rate, disease-free survival and overall survival were 88.1%, 84.2% and 81.8% respectively. Although 38.2% patients suffered from late toxicity, only 3 patients had grade III late toxicity. Conclusions: In our experience, HDR brachytherapy with 9 Gy per fraction in two fractions is an effective dose fractionation for the treatment of cervical cancer with acceptable toxicity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.154-156
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• 2002

Brachytherapy has a long history in the treatment of cancer. However, the treatment planning technique for brachytherapy has lagged somewhat behind the corresponding developments for external beam therapy as far as the imaging technique is concerned. Currently, the orthogonal-film-based treatment planning is performed at most institutions even though the CT-based planning is available. The aim of this study is to evaluate the CT-based vs. the orthogonal-film-based treatment planning in cervix cancer. The doses to point A, point B, rectum and bladder points according to ICRU 38 were calculated for the two methods above. In addition, the volumetric studies such as 3D dose computation and DVH were obtained for the CT-based planning. For the bulky tumor, the isodose lines of point A prescription were not fairly covered for the CTV. The CT -based dose planning can overestimate the maximum dose delivered to bladder and rectum by 30%. The CT-based planning has several advantages over the orthogonal-film-based such as 3D dose display, DVH, and more accurate target delineation. It is suggested that the prescription point in cervix cancer be revised especially for the bulky tumor.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.254-264
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• 2018

This article reviewed new trends and controversial issues, including the intensification of chemotherapy and recent brachytherapy (BT) advances, and also reviewed recent consensuses from different societies on the management of locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). Intensive chemotherapy during and after radiation therapy (RT) was not recommended as a standard treatment due to severe toxicities reported by several studies. The use of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for pelvic RT planning has increased the clinical utilization of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for the evaluation of pelvic lymph node metastasis and pelvic bone marrow. Recent RT techniques for LACC patients mainly aim to minimize toxicities by sparing the normal bladder and rectum tissues and shortening the overall treatment time by administering a simultaneous integrated boost for metastatic pelvic lymph node in pelvic IMRT followed by MRI-based image guided adaptive BT.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.195-202
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• 2020

Needle detection in ultrasound images is sometimes difficult due to obstruction of fat tissues. Accurate needle detection using continuous ultrasound (CUS) images is a vital stage of treatment planning for tissue biopsy and brachytherapy. The main goal of the study is classified into two categories. First, new detection model, i.e. D-Attention Unet, is developed by combining the context information of 3D medical data and CUS images. Second, the D-Attention Unet model was compared with other models to verify its usefulness for needle detection in continuous ultrasound images. The continuous needle images taken with ultrasonic waves were converted into still images for dataset to evaluate the performance of the D-Attention Unet. The dataset was used for training and testing. Based on the results, the proposed D-Attention Unet model showed the better performance than other 3 models (Unet, D-Unet and Attention Unet), with Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Recall and Precision at 71.9%, 70.6% and 73.7%, respectively. In conclusion, the D-Attention Unet model provides accurate needle detection for US-guided biopsy or brachytherapy, facilitating the clinical workflow. Especially, this kind of research is enthusiastically being performed on how to add image processing techniques to learning techniques. Thus, the proposed method is applied in this manner, it will be more effective technique than before.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.735-740
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• 2022

In order to reduce side effects such as rectal bleeding in the Brachytherapy, the rectal retractor and wet gauze have been used to increase the distance between the rectum and the tandem. However, there were disadvantages that it was difficult to insert through a narrow entrance into the vagina and poor reproducibility. Also, based on the CT image of the selected catheter, the distance from the tandem to the rectum with or without the balloon catheter was checked and the reduction of the dose to the rectum was confirmed. As a result of the experiment, catheter No. 7 was selected considering the maximum balloon size at a level that does not affect the distance between the start point of the balloon and the end of the catheter, and the ovoid applicator. Based on the CT image of the selected catheter, the degree of expansion according to the presence or absence of the balloon catheter was compared, and it was found that the distance difference was 0.3 - 1 cm. In addition, it was confirmed that a decrease of about 32% was observed due to this distance difference. Therefore, the actual clinical application of the selected catheter can be used as a substitute for the existing rectal retractor and wet gauze.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.553-560
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical risk according to the applicator heterogeneity, mislocation, and tissue heterogeneity correction through a dose verification program during brachytherapy of cervical cancer. We performed image processing with MATLAB on images acquired with CT simulator. The source was modeled and stochiometric calibration and Monte-Carlo algorithm were applied based on dwell time and location to calculate the dose, and the secondary cancer risk was evaluated in the dose verification program. The result calculated by correcting for applicator and tissue heterogeneity showed a maximum dose of about 25% higher. In the bladder, the difference in excess absolute risk according to the heterogeneity correction was not significant. In the rectum, the difference in excess absolute risk was lower than that calculated by correcting applicator and tissue heterogeneity compared to the water-based calculation. In the femur, the water-based calculation result was the lowest, and the result calculated by correcting the applicator and tissue heterogeneity was 10% higher. A maximum of 14% dose difference occurred when the applicator mislocation was 20 mm in the Z-axis. In a future study, it is expected that a system that can independently verify the treatment plan can be developed by automating the interface between the treatment planning system and the dose verification program.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4717-4721
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• 2014

Background: Dosimetric comparison of two dimensional (2D) radiography and three-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT) based dose distributions with high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitry radiotherapy (ICRT) for carcinoma cervix, in terms of target coverage and doses to bladder and rectum. Materials and Methods: Sixty four sessions of HDR ICRT were performed in 22 patients. External beam radiotherapy to pelvis at a dose of 50 Gray in 27 fractions followed by HDR ICRT, 21 Grays to point A in 3 sessions, one week apart was planned. All patients underwent 2D-orthogonal and 3D-CT simulation for each session. Treatment plans were generated using 2D-orthogonal images and dose prescription was made at point A. 3D plans were generated using 3D-CT images after delineating target volume and organs at risk. Comparative evaluation of 2D and 3D treatment planning was made for each session in terms of target coverage (dose received by 90%, 95% and 100% of the target volume: D90, D95 and D100 respectively) and doses to bladder and rectum: ICRU-38 bladder and rectum point dose in 2D planning and dose to 0.1cc, 1cc, 2cc, 5cc, and 10cc of bladder and rectum in 3D planning. Results: Mean doses received by 100% and 90% of the target volume were $4.24{\pm}0.63$ and $4.9{\pm}0.56$ Gy respectively. Doses received by 0.1cc, 1cc and 2cc volume of bladder were $2.88{\pm}0.72$, $2.5{\pm}0.65$ and $2.2{\pm}0.57$ times more than the ICRU bladder reference point. Similarly, doses received by 0.1cc, 1cc and 2cc of rectum were $1.80{\pm}0.5$, $1.48{\pm}0.41$ and $1.35{\pm}0.37$ times higher than ICRU rectal reference point. Conclusions: Dosimetric comparative evaluation of 2D and 3D CT based treatment planning for the same brachytherapy session demonstrates underestimation of OAR doses and overestimation of target coverage in 2D treatment planning.