The first experience of the use of two-fraction adaptive intracavitary/interstitial brachytherapy in the treatment of cervical cancer

Aim. The study of the results of chemoradiotherapy for cervical cancer with the use of two-fraction brachytherapy. Methods. The article presents analysis of the examination and treatment results of 17 patients with IIB-IIIB stage cervical cancer. The average age was 51±4.6 years (44 to 62 years). External beam radiotherapy was performed with single boost dose of 1.8 Gy to total dose of 45 Gy. Also the patients received 40 mg/m2 of weekly cisplatin. Intracavitary/interstitial high dose-rate brachytherapy with insertion of parametrial needles consisted of two weekly fractions of 10.0 Gy. Results. Due to the use of interstitial needles the average dose was 82.2 Gy when recalculated to classical 2 Gy fractions. The median follow up was 16±3,2 months. The used radiotherapy modality for cervical cancer allowed achieving complete tumor involution in 16 (94.1%) patients and partial involution only in 1 (5.9%) case. All females had favorable tolerance and received the entire regimen of planned radiation. Conclusion. The first experience of the use of concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer with external beam radiotherapy, two-fraction intracavitary/interstitial adaptive brachytherapy with single boost dose of 10 Gy and 5 weekly infusions of 40 mg/m2 of cisplatin showed high probability of complete and partial tumor response rate with favorable tolerance and acceptable incidence and severity of toxicity