Adjuvant therapy for early-stage endometrial cancer: a review.

Most patients with endometrial cancer (EMC) present their symptoms early in their course, leading to an overall favorable outcome. However, some patients who are in early-stage diseases may carry some risk features that would hamper their prognoses. For these early-stage diseases with high risk of recurrences, radiation therapy certainly plays a major role as an adjuvant treatment. Despite an excellent local diseases control by radiation, systemic failures are still encountered. To improve the prognoses, other types of adjuvant therapy have been attempted. In this review, various options of adjuvant treatment for this early-stage EMC including radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy are discussed.

Measurements of patient's setup variation in intensity-modulated radiation therapy of head and neck cancer using electronic portal imaging device.

PURPOSE: To measure the interfraction setup variation of patient undergoing intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) of head and neck cancer. The data was used to define adequate treatment CTV-to-PTV margin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During March to September 2006, data was collected from 9 head and neck cancer patients treated with dynamic IMRT using 6 MV X-ray beam from Varian Clinac 23EX. Weekly portal images of setup fields which were anterior-posterior and lateral portal images were acquired for each patient with an amorphous silicon EPID, Varian aS500. These images were matched with the reference image from Varian Acuity simulator using the Varis vision software (Version 7.3.10). Six anatomical landmarks were selected for comparison. The displacement of portal image from the reference image was recorded in X (Left-Right, L-R), Y (Superior-Inferior, S-I) direction for anterior field and Z (Anterior-Posterior, A-P), Y (S-I) direction for lateral field. The systematic and random error for individual and population were calculated. Then the population-based margins were obtained. RESULTS: A total of 135 images (27 simulation images and 108 portal images) and 405 match points was evaluated. The systematic error ranged from 0 to 7.5 mm and the random error ranged from 0.3 to 4.8 mm for all directions. The population-based margin ranged from 2.3 to 4.5 mm (L-R), 3.5 to 4.9 mm (S-I) for anterior field and 3.4 to 4.7 mm (A-P), 2.6 to 3.7 mm (S-I) for the lateral field. These margins were comparable to the margin that was prescribed at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital (5-10 mm) for head and neck cancer. CONCLUSION: The population-based margin is less than 5 mm, thus the margin provides sufficient coverage for all of the patients.

Intracranial germ cell tumors: experience in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

A retrospective study was performed on 69 patients with intracranial germ cell tumors who were treated at the Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from 1990 to 2000. Median age was 15 years. Forty-two cases (60.87%) had histologically confirmed germinoma or nongerminomatous germ cell tumors. Germinoma was the predominate histology followed by mixed germ cell tumors. Pineal and suprasellar regions were the two leading sites, hydrocephalus (85.5%) and diplopia (57.97%) were the two most common clinical presentations. Only 13 cases had the result of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology or magnetic resonance imagine (MRI) of the spine before initial treatment. Serum tumor markers, Alpha fetoprotein and beta-human chorionic gonadotropin, were available in 66.67 per cent. Total or partial tumor removal were feasible in 24 cases. Whole brain irradiation was given in almost all cases with the median dose of 3,600 cGy. The median total tumor dose was 5,400 cGy. Whole spine radiation was utilized in 17 cases. The mean follow-up time was 41 months. The five-year disease free survival was 73.59 per cent. Overall 3 and 5 year survival rates were 86.45 per cent and 81.64 per cent, respectively.

Results of radiation therapy in stage 1B cervical carcinoma at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital: fifteen-year experience.

A retrospective study was performed on 131 patients with stage 1B cervical carcinoma who were referred and treated with external beam radiation and intracavitary brachytherapy at the Division of Radiation Therapy, Department of Radiology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital between February 1985 and February 2000. Primary outcomes were overall survival rate, progression free survival rate, recurrence, and treatment-related complications. The treatment results from different sources of intracavitary radiation therapy were secondary endpoints. The number of patients treated with Ra-226, Cs-137, and Ir-192 intracavitary irradiation were 12, 84, and 35 patients respectively. The median follow-up times were 69, 59, and 21 months for Ra-226, Cs-137, and Ir-192, respectively. Actuarial 5-year overall survival rate was 89 per cent. The 5-year progression free survival rate was 80 per cent. Actuarial 5-year survival and progression free survival rate were comparable among different sources of intracavitary brachytherapy (p = 0.553 and p=0.793, respectively). The overall recurrent rate was 16.8 per cent. Of the recurrence; 40.9 per cent was locoregional, 54.6 per cent was distant failure, and 4.5 per cent was combined locoregional and distant failure. The overall complication rate was 25.95 per cent. The severe complication rates (Grade III-V) from treatment occurred in the urinary bladder (0.76%) and in the small bowel (0.76%.) These results suggest that radiation therapy alone is an effective treatment for stage 1B cervical carcinoma. Additionally, all types of intracavitary brachytherapy provide comparable clinical results.