External Beam Irradiation for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Maxillary Sinus / 대한방사선종양학회지

PURPOSE: Maxillary sinus cancers are usually locally advanced, and involve the structures around sinus, but the regional lymphatic spread is uncommon. Therefore, the local control of these cancers is important for their cure. We reviewed our experience of 55 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the maxillary sinus, treated with radiation therapy, and looked for the role of radiation therapy in maxillary sinus cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between November 1982 and October 1999, 55 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the maxillary sinus underwent either radiation therapy only, or combined with surgery or with concurrent chemoradiation therapy. All patients were restaged according to the 1997 AJCC staging systems. The T classifications of the tumors of the patients were as follows:1.8% (1/55) for T2, 81.8% (45/55) for T3 and 16.4% (9/55) for T4. Thirteen patients were diagnosed with lymph node involvement. With the surgical procedures, 12 patients were managed by biopsy only, 21 were resected by FESS (functional endoscopic sinus surgery) and 22 by partial/medial/total maxillectomies. The details of the treatments were as follows:8 patients were treated with radiation therapy only, 17 with a combination of FESS and radiation therapy, 22 with a combination of a maxillectomy and radiation therapy, 4 with a combination of preoperative radiation therapy and surgery, and 4 with concurrent chemoradiation therapy. The mean follow-up for all patients was 25 months, ranging from 2.8 to 125 months. RESULTS: The 4-year local control and survival rates for all patients were 45.5 and 33.3%, respectively. The 4-year local control and survival rates, due to the extent of surgery, were as follows:32.1, and 21.4 % for biopsy; 41.9, and 31.7% for FESS; and 56.8, and 52.7% for maxillectomy, respectively. Twenty-nine (52.7%) patients were not cured, and of these 29 patients, 23 (79.3%) patients had a local recurrence following treatment. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the major failure sites following treatment to be the local regions, and that the completeness of surgery was important for improving the local control and survival of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the maxillary sinus.

An Analysis of Prognostic Factors in the Uterine Cervical Cancer Patients / 대한방사선종양학회지

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to analysis of survival and recurrence rates of the uterine cervical carcinoma patients whom received the radiation therapy respectively. The prognostic factors, such as Papanicolaou (Pap) smear, carcinoembriogenic antigen (CEA) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen has been studied. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From January 1981 to December 1998, eight-hundred twenty-seven uterine cervical cancer patients were treated with radiation therapy. All of the patients were divided into two groups : the radiation therapy only (521 patients) group and the postoperative radiation therapy (326 patients) group. The age, treatment modality, clinical stage, histopathology, recurrence, follow-up Pap smears, CEA and SCC antigen were used as parameters for the evaluation. The prognostic factors such as survival and recurrence rates were performed with the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox hazard model, respectively. Median follow-up was 38.6 months. RESULTS: On the radiation therapy only group, 314 patients (60%) achieved complete response (CR), 47 patients (9%) showed local recurrence (LR), 78 patients (15%) developed distant metastasis (DM). On the postoperative radiation therapy group, showed 276 patients (85%) CR, 8 patients (2%) LR, 37 patients (11%) DM. The 5-year survival and recurrence rates was evaluated for all parameters. The statistically significant factors for the survival rate in univariate analysis were clinical stage (p=0.0001), treatment modality ( p=0.0010), recurrence ( p=0.0001), Pap smear ( p=0.0329), CEA ( p=0.0001) and SCC antigen ( p= 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study indicated that after treatment, the follow-up studies of Pap smear, CEA and SCC antigen were significant parameter and prediction factors for the survival and recurrence of the uterine cervical carcinoma.