Medium dose rate brachytherapy for patients with cervical carcinoma; early result of a prospective study

"nBackground: Treatment of cervical carcinoma is routinely performed with Low Dose Rate (LDR) brachytherapy, but Brachytherapy in our department is done with Medium Dose Rate (MDR) due to the technical characteristics of the machine available here. Thus we decided to evaluate the results of this treatment in our department in a prospective study. "nMethods: Between March 2006 and July 2008, 140 patients with histologic diagnosis of cervical carcinoma referred to Tehran Cancer Institute; were treated with external beam radiotherapy (44-64 Gy to whole pelvis) and MDR brachytherapy (8-30 Gy to Point A) with a dose rate of 2.2±0.3 Gy/h. "nResults: 121 patients were followed up for a median time of 18 months (range: 9-39 m). There were 11%(6/54) local recurrence for surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy group; 25%(16/65) for radical radiotherapy group, and 19%(23/121) for all patients. Rectal and bladder complications incidence for all patients were 10%(12/121) and 13%(16/121) respectively. High grade complication was shown only in one patient in radical radiotherapy group. In this study 3-years disease free survival and overall survival were 73% and 92% respectively, and disease stage (p=0.007) and overall treatment time (p=0.05) were the significant factors affecting disease free survival. "nConclusions: Results of this series suggest that the use of external beam radiotherapy and MDR brachytherapy with about 20% dose reduction in comparison with LDR can be an acceptable technique with regard to local control and complications