• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.495-500
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• 1993

Background: For the relief of the occlusion of major bronchi, laser therapy, radiation therapy or combined therapy is generally used. But the effect of radiation therapy is very slow and not consistent and laser therapy requires expensive equipments and technical expertise with occasional serious side effects. Direct ethanol injection has been widely used for the control of bleeding in gastrointestinal lesion, esophageal varices or renal cell carcinoma with good results. So we tried direct injection of ethanol into the tumor to relieve the obstruction of major bronchus in 11 patients. Method: All procedures were done under the fiberoptic bronchoscopy with continuous oxygen supplement and aliquoted 0.5-1.0 ml of absolute ethanol directly into the tumor through the endobronchial aspiration needle. The tumor was endoscopically removed with a biopsy forceps immediately after ethanol injection. The whole procedure was repeated 3-4 days interval until the lumen opens. Usually after 2-3 trials of ethanol injection, the lumen opened up. Results: The immediate effect of ethanol injection was whitening of the mucosa and prompt cessation of bleeding. The late effect was necrosis of the tumor. The final results of this procedure were improvement of symptoms and reexpnasion of the lung in all patients. $FEV_{1.0}$ and FVC were improved and $PaO_2$ was increased from $68.1{\pm}9.2$ mmHg to $83.9{\pm}8.1$ mmHg, $SaO_2$: from $94{\pm}8.5%$ to $96.6{\pm}1.1%$, and $AaDO_2$ was reduced from $26.5{\pm}8.5$ mmHg to $10.9{\pm}9.1$ mmHg. Conclusion: Direct ethanol injection into the tumor tissue is a rapid, cheap and relatively safe method of relieving the complete occlusion of major bronchus.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2010

Purpose: To retrospectively assess the advantages and side effects of prophylactic Paraaortic irradiation in cervical cancer patients with common iliac nodal involvement, the results for survival, patterns of failure, and treatment-related toxicity. Materials and Methods: From May 1985 to October 2004, 909 patients with cervical carcinoma received postoperative radiotherapy at the Seoul National University Hospital. Among them, 54 patients with positive common iliac nodes on pathology and negative Paraaortic node were included in the study. In addition, 44 patients received standard pelvic irradiation delivered 50.4 Gy per 28 fractions (standard irradiation group), and chemotherapy was combined in 16 of them. The other 10 patients received pelvic irradiation at a dose of 50.4 Gy per 28 fractions in addition to Paraaortic irradiation at 45 Gy per 25 fractions (extended irradiation group). In addition, all of them received chemotherapy in combination with radiation. Follow-up times for pelvic and Paraaortic irradiation ranged from 6 to 201 months (median follow-up time, 58 months) and 21 to 58 months (median follow-up time, 47 months), respectively. Results: The 4-year overall survival, disease free survival, and distant metastasis free survival in the standard irradiation group and extended irradiation group were 67.2% vs. 90.0% (p=0.291), 59.0% vs. 70.0% (p=0.568) and 67.5% vs. 90.0% (p=0.196), respectively. The most common site of first failure for the standard irradiation group was the paraaortic lymph node, while no paraaortic failure was observed in the extended irradiation group. Relatively, hematologic toxicity grade 3 or greater was common in the extended irradiation group (2/10 extended vs. 2/44 standard), while gastrointestinal toxicity of grade 3 or greater was lower (2/10 extended vs. 6/44 standard), and urologic toxicity of grade 3 or greater was observed in the standard irradition group only (0/10 vs. 3/44). Conclusion: Concurrent chemotherapy and prophylactic Paraaortic irradiation in patients with common iliac nodal involvement showed slightly improved clinical outcomes aside from increased hematologic toxicity, which was statistically insignificant. Considering the relatively small number of patients and short follow-up times, additional studies are needed to obtain more conclusive outcomes.