[en] For early stage non-small-cell lung cancer, surgical resection is the treatment of choice. But when the patients are not able to tolerate it because of medical problem and when refuse surgery, radiation therapy is considered an acceptable alternative. We report on the treatment results and the effect of achieving local control of primary tumors on survival end points and analyze factors that may influence survival and local control. We reviewed the medical records of 32 patients with medically inoperable non--small cell lung cancer treated at our institution from June, 1987 through June, 1997. All patients had a pathologic diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer and were not. candidate for surgical resection because of either patients refusal (4), old age (2), lung problem (21), chest wall invasion (3) and heart problems (3). In 8 patients, there were more than 2 problems. The median age of the patients was 68 years (ranging from 60 to 86 years). Histologic cell type included squamous (24), adenocarcinoma (6) and unclassified squamous cell (2). The clinical stages of the patients were T1 in 5. T2 in 25, T3 in 2 patients. Initial tumor size was ≤3.0 cm in 11, between 3.0 cm and 5.0 cm in 13 and more than 5.0 em in 8 patients. All patients had taken chest x-rays, chest CT, abdomen USG and bone scan. Radiotherapy was delivered using 6 MV or 10 MV linear accelerators. The doses of primary tumor were the ranging from 54.0 Gy to 68.8 Gy (median; 61.2 Gy). The duration of treatment was from 37 days through 64 days (median; 48.5 days) and there was no treatment interruption except 1 patient due to poor general status. In 12 patients, concomitant boost technique was used. There were no neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy. The period of follow-up was ranging from 2 months through 93 months (median; 23 months). Survival was measured from the date radiation therapy was initiated. The overall survival rate was 44.6% at 2 years and 24.5% at 5 years, with the median survival time of 23 months. Of the 25 deaths, 7 patients died of intercurrent illness, and cause-specific survival rate was 61.0% at 2 years and 33.5% at 5 years. The disease-free survival rate was 38.9% at 2 years and 28.3 % at 5 years. The local-relapse-free survival rate was 35.1 %, 28.1 %, respectively. On univariate analysis, tumor size was significant variable of overall survival (p=0.0015. 95% C.I.; 1.4814-5.2815), disease-free survival (p=0.0022. 95% C.I.; 1.4707-5.7780) and local-relapse-free survival (p=0.0048, 95% C.I.; 1.2910- 4.1197), T stage was significant variable of overall survival (p=0.0395, 95% C.I.; 1.1084-65.9112) and had borderline significance on disease-free survival (p=0.0649, 95% C.I.; 0.8888-50.7123) and local-relapse-free survival (p= 0.0582, 95% C.I.; 0.9342-52.7755). On multivariate analysis, tumor size had borderline significance on overall survival (p=0.6919. 955 C.I.; 0.9610-5.1277) and local-relapse-free survival (p=0.0585, 95% C.I.; 0.9720-4.9657), Tumor size was also significant variable of disease-free survival (p=0.0317, 95% Cl.; 1.1028-8.4968). Radical radiotherapy is an effective treatment for small (T1 or ≤3 cm) tumors and can be offered as alternative to surgery in elderly or infirmed patients. But when the size of tumor is larger than 5 cm, there were few long-term survivors treated with radiotherapy alone. The use of hyperfractionated radiotherapy, endobronchial boost, radisensitizer and conformal or IMRT should be consider to improve the local control rate and disease-specific survival rate

[en] Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a useful tumor marker, which is widely used as a diagnostic index and predictor of both treatment and follow-up result in prostate cancer. A prospective analysis was carried out to obtain the period of PSA normalization and the half life of PSA and to analyze the factors influencing the period of PSA normalization. The PSA level was checked before and serially after radical radiotherapy. Twenty patients with clinically localized prostate cancer who underwent radical external beam radiotherapy were enrolled in this study. Accrual period was from April 1993 to May 1998. Median follow-up period was 26 months. Radiotherapy was given to whole pelvis followed by a boost to prostate. Dose range for the whole pelvis was from 45 Gy to 50 Gy and boost dose to prostate, from 14 Gy to 20 Gy. The post-irradiation PSA normal value was under 3.0 ng/ml. The physical examination and serum PSA level evaluation were performed at 3 month interval in the first on year, and then at every 4 to 6 months. PSA value was normalized in nineteen patients (95%) within 12 months. The mean period of PSA normalization was 5.3 (±2.7) months. The half life of PSA ofd the nonfailing patients was 2.1 (±0.9) month. The nadir PSA level of the nonfailing patients was 0.8 (±0.5) ng/ml. The period of PSA normalization had the positive correlation with pretreatment PSA level (R²=0.468). The nadir PSA level had no definite positive correlation with the pretreatment PSA level (R²=0.175). The half life of serum PSA level also had no definite correlation with pretreatment PSA level (R²=0.029). The PSA level was mostly normalized within 8 months (85%). If it has not normalized within 12 months, we should consider the residual disease in prostate or distant metastasis. In 2 patients, the PSA level increased 6 months or 20 months before clinical disease was detected. So the serum PSA level can be used as early diagnostic indicator of treatment failure

[en] A 70 years old female patient with thyroid cancer received palliative radiation therapy for neck swelling and hemoptysis. She had a cardiac pacemaker under her chest due to complete AV block since 8 years ago. We present clinical detail and review previously reported articles

[en] This study was performed to evaluate the cosmetic outcome of conservative treatment for early breast cancer and to analyze the factors influencing cosmetic outcome. From February 1992 through January 1997, 120 patients with early breast cancer were treated with conservative surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. The types of conservative surgery were quadrantectomy and axillary node dissection for 108 patients (90%) and lumpectomy or excisional biopsy for 10 patients (8.3%). Forty six patients (38%) received adjuvant chemotherapy (CMF or CAF). Cosmetic result evaluation was carried out between 16 and 74 months (median, 33 months) after surgery. The cosmetic results were classified into four categories, i.e., excellent, good, fair, and poor. The appearances of the patients' breasts were also analyzed for symmetry using the differences in distances from the stemal notch to right and left nipples. A logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent variables influencing the cosmetic outcome. Cosmetic score was excellent or good in 76% (91/120), fair in 19% (23/120) and poor in 5% (6/ 120) of the patients. Univariate analysis showed that tumor size (T1 versus T2) (p=0.04), axillary node status (NO versus N1) (p=0.0002), extent of surgery (quadrantectomy versus lumpectomy or excisional biopsy) (p=0.02), axillary node irradiation (p=0.0005) and chemotherapy (p=0,0001) affected cosmetic score. Multivariate analysis revealed that extent of surgery (p=0.04) and chemotherapy (p=0.0002) were significant factors. For breast symmetry, univariate analysis confirmed exactly the same factors as above. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size (p=0.003) and lymph node status (p=0.007) affected breast symmetry. Conservative surgery and postoperative radiotherapy resulted in excellent or good cosmetic outcome in a large portion of the patients. Better cosmetic results were achieved generally in the group of patients with smaller tumor size, without axillary node metastasis and treated with less extensive surgery without chemotherapy

[en] Interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1) is an interferon-induced transcriptional activator that suppresses tumors by impeding cell proliferation. Recently, we demonstrated that the level of SUMOylated IRF-1 is elevated in tumor cells, and that SUMOylation of IRF-1 attenuates its tumor-suppressive function. Here we report that SUMOylated IRF-1 mimics IRF-2, an antagonistic repressor, and shows oncogenic potential. To demonstrate the role of SUMOylated IRF-1 in tumorigenesis, we used SUMO-IRF-1 recombinant protein. Stable expression of SUMO-IRF-1 in NIH3T3 cells resulted in focus formation and anchorage-independent growth in soft agar. Inoculation of SUMO-IRF-1-transfected cells into athymic nude mice resulted in tumor formation and infiltration of adipose tissues. Finally, we demonstrated that SUMO-IRF-1 transforms NIH3T3 cells in a dose-dependent manner suggesting that SUMOylated IRF-1 may act as an oncogenic protein in tumor cells.