The British Journal of Radiology, Vol 49, Issue 581 430-444, Copyright © 1976 by British Institute of Radiology

ARTICLES

Analysis of dose, dose-rate and treatment time in the production of injuries by radium treatment for cancer of the uterine cervix

KH Lee, AR Kagan, H Nussbaum, M Wollin, JH Winkley and A Norman

A retrospective study has been made of 15 patients who had developed severe complications to the bladder, rectum and ureters after radiation therapy for carcinoma of the cervix. Comprehensive dose distribution in the pelvis were calculated with computer assistance to visualize how the normal organs had been irradiated. The risk of normal tissue injury was analysed graphically with respect to the maximum radium dose, dose-rate and irradiation time. The two groups of data representing the injured and non-injured organs separate much better in a dose-rate versus dose plot than in a conventional Strandqvist type dose-time plot. This implies that in radium therapy, the dose-rate rather than the treatment time, is the important parameter in modifying the risk of normal tissue injury. Our results show a good separation of injured from non-injured cases only when the maximum values of dose and dose-rate were used. This suggests that clinically significant injury may develop from relatively small regions of high dose and dose-rate. Since the dose-rate varies from point to point in the pelvis (unlike treatment time), comprehensive determinations of dose-rate distributions are required in order to locate the sites of potential injuries.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J M Wilkinson, M A Harris, S E Davidson, R S Welch, R D Hunter, and R Swindell A retrospective study of bladder morbidity in patients receiving intracavitary brachytherapy as all or part of their treatment for cervix cancer Br. J. Radiol., December 1, 2003; 76(912): 897 - 903. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]