HIGH DOSE RATE ENDOBRONCHIAL BRACHYTHERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ADVANCED LUNG CANCER – COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT DOSES – PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT

Purpose: Brachytherapy is one of the most efficient methods of overcoming endobronchial obstruc-tion in palliative treatment of lung cancer. In single cases, brachytherapy is performed as radical treatment, however in most of cases, due to advanced clinical stage it has a palliative aim. In the ab-sence of clear consensus regarding the value of doses used in brachytherapy different fraction doses are used in clinical treatment. The aim of this work is to compare results of palliative high dose rate brachytherapy using various treatment protocols with the view to analysing differences in survival and diminishing breathing difficulties. Material and methods: Between May 1999 and February 2000 at the Greatpoland Cancer Center, 69 patients with advanced lung cancer were treated by high dose rate brachytherapy. They were disqualified from radical treatment due to advanced clinical stage. The age of the patients ranged from 39 to 76 years (average 53,2 years). Fifty-one patients received a total dose of 22,5 Gy in 3 fractions once a week, 18 patients received one single fraction of 10 Gy. All the patients were divided into two groups according to their clinical stage and the Karnofsky score – those with the Karnofsky score lower than 50 were qualified for a single fraction treatment. They were under clinical and endobron