• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.192-199
• /
• 2004

Purpose: To determine the patterns on evaluation and treatment in the patient with early breast cancer treated with conservative surgery and radiotherapy and to improve the radiotherapy techiniques, nationwide survey was peformed. Materials and Methods: A web-based database system for korean Patterns of Care Study (PCS) for 6 common cancers was developed. Two hundreds sixty-one randomly selected records of eligible patients treated between 1998$\~$1999 from 15 hospitals were reviewed. Results: The patients ages ranged from 24 to 85 years(median 45 years). Infiltrating ductal carcinoma was most common histologic type (88.9$\%$) followed by medullary carcinoma (4.2$\%$) and infiltrating lobular carcinoma (1.5$\%$). Pathologic T stage by AJCC was T1 in 59.7$\%$ of the casses, T2 in 29.5$\%$ of the cases, Tis in 8.8$\%$ of the cases. Axillary lymph node dissection was peformed I\in 91.2$\%$ of the cases and 69.7$\%$ were node negative. AJCC stage was 0 in 8.8$\%$ of the cases, stage I in 44.9$\%$ of the cases, stage IIa in 33.3$\%$ of the cases, and stage IIb in 8.4$\%$ of the cases. Estrogen and progesteron receptors were evaluated in 71.6$\%$, and 70.9$\%$ of the patients, respectively. Surgical methods of breast-conserving surgery was excision/lumpectomy in 37.2$\%$, wide excision in 11.5$\%$, quadrantectomy in 23$\%$ and partial mastectomy in 27.5$\%$ of the cases. A pathologically confirmed negative margin was obtained in 90.8$\%$ of the cases. Pathological margin was involved with tumor in 10 patients and margin was close (less than 2 mm) in 10 patients. All the patients except one recieved more than 90$\%$ of the planned radiotherapy dose. Radiotherapy volume was breast only In 88$\%$ of the cases, breast+supraclavicular fossa (SCL) in 5$\%$ of the cases, and breast+ SCL+ posterior axillary boost in 4.2%$\%$of the cases. Only one patient received isolated internal mammary lymph node irradiation. Used radiation beam was Co-60 in 8 cases, 4 MV X-ray in 115 cases, 6 MV X-ray in 125 cases, and 10 MV X-ray in 11 cases. The radiation dose to the whole breast was 45$\~$59.4 Gy (median 50.4) and boost dose was 8$\~$20 Gy (median 10 Gy). The total radiation dose delivered was 50.4$\~$70.4 Gy (median 60.4 Gy). Conclusion: There was no major deviation from current standard in the patterns of evaluation and treatment for the patients with early breast cancer treated with breast conservation method. Some varieties were identified in boost irradiation dose. Separate analysis for the datails of radiotherapy planning will be followed and the outcome of treatment is needed to evaluate the process.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.79-92
• /
• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: For the first time, a nationwide survey in the Republic of Korea was conducted to determine the basic parameters for the treatment of esophageal cancer and to offer a solid cooperative system for the Korean Pattern of Care Study database. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: During $1998{\sim}1999$, biopsy-confirmed 246 esophageal cancer patients that received radiotherapy were enrolled from 23 different institutions in South Korea. Random sampling was based on power allocation method. Patient parameters and specific information regarding tumor characteristics and treatment methods were collected and registered through the web based PCS system. The data was analyzed by the use of the Chi-squared test. $\underline{Results}$: The median age of the collected patients was 62 years. The male to female ratio was about 91 to 9 with an absolute male predominance. The performance status ranged from ECOG 0 to 1 in 82.5% of the patients. Diagnostic procedures included an esophagogram (228 patients, 92.7%), endoscopy (226 patients, 91.9%), and a chest CT scan (238 patients, 96.7%). Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed in 96.3% of the patients; mid-thoracic esophageal cancer was most prevalent (110 patients, 44.7%) and 135 patients presented with clinical stage III disease. Fifty seven patients received radiotherapy alone and 37 patients received surgery with adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy. Half of the patients (123 patients) received chemotherapy together with RT and 70 patients (56.9%) received it as concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The most frequently used chemotherapeutic agent was a combination of cisplatin and 5-FU. Most patients received radiotherapy either with 6 MV (116 patients, 47.2%) or with 10 MV photons (87 patients, 35.4%). Radiotherapy was delivered through a conventional AP-PA field for 206 patients (83.7%) without using a CT plan and the median delivered dose was 3,600 cGy. The median total dose of postoperative radiotherapy was 5,040 cGy while for the non-operative patients the median total dose was 5,970 cGy. Thirty-four patients received intraluminal brachytherapy with high dose rate Iridium-192. Brachytherapy was delivered with a median dose of 300 cGy in each fraction and was typically delivered $3{\sim}4\;times$. The most frequently encountered complication during the radiotherapy treatment was esophagitis in 155 patients (63.0%). $\underline{Conclusion}$: For the evaluation and treatment of esophageal cancer patients at radiation facilities in Korea, this study will provide guidelines and benchmark data for the solid cooperative systems of the Korean PCS. Although some differences were noted between institutions, there was no major difference in the treatment modalities and RT techniques.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.195-220
• /
• 2018

In this study, we conducted an empirical analysis of the factors that affect the change of Bitcoin Closing Price. Previous studies have focused on the security of the block chain system, the economic ripple effects caused by the cryptocurrency, legal implications and the acceptance to consumer about cryptocurrency. In various area, cryptocurrency was studied and many researcher and people including government, regardless of country, try to utilize cryptocurrency and applicate to its technology. Despite of rapid and dramatic change of cryptocurrencies' price and growth of its effects, empirical study of the factors affecting the price change of cryptocurrency was lack. There were only a few limited studies, business reports and short working paper. Therefore, it is necessary to determine what factors effect on the change of closing Bitcoin price. For analysis, hypotheses were constructed from three dimensions of consumer, industry, and macroeconomics for analysis, and time series data were collected for variables of each dimension. Consumer variables consist of search traffic of Bitcoin, search traffic of bitcoin ban, search traffic of ransomware and search traffic of war. Industry variables were composed GPU vendors' stock price and memory vendors' stock price. Macro-economy variables were contemplated such as U.S. dollar index futures, FOMC policy interest rates, WTI crude oil price. Using above variables, we did times series regression analysis to find relationship between those variables and change of Bitcoin Closing Price. Before the regression analysis to confirm the relationship between change of Bitcoin Closing Price and the other variables, we performed the Unit-root test to verifying the stationary of time series data to avoid spurious regression. Then, using a stationary data, we did the regression analysis. As a result of the analysis, we found that the change of Bitcoin Closing Price has negative effects with search traffic of 'Bitcoin Ban' and US dollar index futures, while change of GPU vendors' stock price and change of WTI crude oil price showed positive effects. In case of 'Bitcoin Ban', it is directly determining the maintenance or abolition of Bitcoin trade, that's why consumer reacted sensitively and effected on change of Bitcoin Closing Price. GPU is raw material of Bitcoin mining. Generally, increasing of companies' stock price means the growth of the sales of those companies' products and services. GPU's demands increases are indirectly reflected to the GPU vendors' stock price. Making an interpretation, a rise in prices of GPU has put a crimp on the mining of Bitcoin. Consequently, GPU vendors' stock price effects on change of Bitcoin Closing Price. And we confirmed U.S. dollar index futures moved in the opposite direction with change of Bitcoin Closing Price. It moved like Gold. Gold was considered as a safe asset to consumers and it means consumer think that Bitcoin is a safe asset. On the other hand, WTI oil price went Bitcoin Closing Price's way. It implies that Bitcoin are regarded to investment asset like raw materials market's product. The variables that were not significant in the analysis were search traffic of bitcoin, search traffic of ransomware, search traffic of war, memory vendor's stock price, FOMC policy interest rates. In search traffic of bitcoin, we judged that interest in Bitcoin did not lead to purchase of Bitcoin. It means search traffic of Bitcoin didn't reflect all of Bitcoin's demand. So, it implies there are some factors that regulate and mediate the Bitcoin purchase. In search traffic of ransomware, it is hard to say concern of ransomware determined the whole Bitcoin demand. Because only a few people damaged by ransomware and the percentage of hackers requiring Bitcoins was low. Also, its information security problem is events not continuous issues. Search traffic of war was not significant. Like stock market, generally it has negative in relation to war, but exceptional case like Gulf war, it moves stakeholders' profits and environment. We think that this is the same case. In memory vendor stock price, this is because memory vendors' flagship products were not VRAM which is essential for Bitcoin supply. In FOMC policy interest rates, when the interest rate is low, the surplus capital is invested in securities such as stocks. But Bitcoin' price fluctuation was large so it is not recognized as an attractive commodity to the consumers. In addition, unlike the stock market, Bitcoin doesn't have any safety policy such as Circuit breakers and Sidecar. Through this study, we verified what factors effect on change of Bitcoin Closing Price, and interpreted why such change happened. In addition, establishing the characteristics of Bitcoin as a safe asset and investment asset, we provide a guide how consumer, financial institution and government organization approach to the cryptocurrency. Moreover, corroborating the factors affecting change of Bitcoin Closing Price, researcher will get some clue and qualification which factors have to be considered in hereafter cryptocurrency study.