• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.39-59
• /
• 2007

The international involvement of a firm has been described as a gradual development process "a process in which the enterprise gradually increases its international involvement in many studies. This process evolves in the interplay between the development of knowledge about foreign markets and operations on one hand and increasing commitment of resources to foreign markets on the other." On the basis of Uppsala internationalization model, many studies strengthen strong theoretical and empirical support. According to the predictions of the classic stages theory, the internationalization process of firms have been recognized and characterized gradual evolution to foreign markets, so called stage theory: indirect & direct export, strategic alliance and foreign direct investment. However, termed "international new ventures" (McDougall, Shane, and Oviatt 1994), "born globals" (Knight 1997; Knight and Cavusgil 1996; Madsen and Servais 1997), "instant internationals" (Preece, Miles, and Baetz 1999), or "global startups" (Oviatt and McDougall 1994) have been used and come into spotlight in internationalization study of technology intensity venture companies. Recent researches focused on venture company have suggested the phenomenons of 'born global' firms as a contradiction to the stages theory. Especially the article by Oviatt and McDougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs, on international new ventures, and on their importance in the globalising world economy. Since venture companies have, by definition. lack of economies of scale, lack of resources (financial and knowledge), and aversion to risk taking, they have a difficulty in expanding their market to abroad and pursue internalization gradually and step by step. However many venture companies have pursued 'Born Global Strategy', which is different from process strategy, because corporate's environment has been rapidly changing to globalization. The existing studies investigate that (1) why the ventures enter into overseas market in those early stage, even in infancy, (2) what make the different international strategy among ventures and the born global strategy is better to the infant ventures. However, as for venture's performance(growth and profitability), the existing results do not correspond each other. They also, don't include marketing strategy (differentiation, low price, market breadth and market pioneer) that is important factors in studying of BGV's performance. In this paper I aim to delineate the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenons of venture companies' internationalization strategy. In order to verify research problems, I develop a resource-based model and marketing strategies for analyzing the effects of the born global venture firms. In this paper, I suggested 3 research problems. First, do the korean venture companies take some advantages in the aspects of corporate's performances (growth, profitability and overall market performances) when they pursue internationalization from inception? Second, do the korean BGV have firm specific assets (foreign experiences, foreign orientation, organizational absorptive capacity)? Third, What are the marketing strategies of korean BGV and is it different from others? Under these problems, I test then (1) whether the BGV that a firm started its internationalization activity almost from inception, has more intangible resources(foreign experience of corporate members, foreign orientation, technological competences and absorptive capacity) than any other venture firms(Non_BGV) and (2) also whether the BGV's marketing strategies-differentiation, low price, market diversification and preemption strategy are different from Non_BGV. Above all, the main purpose of this research is that results achieved by BGV are indeed better than those obtained by Non_BGV firms with respect to firm's growth rate and efficiency. To do this research, I surveyed venture companies located in Seoul and Deajeon in Korea during November to December, 2005. I gather the data from 200 venture companies and then selected 84 samples, which have been founded during 1999${\sim}$2000. To compare BGV's characteristics with those of Non_BGV, I also had to classify BGV by export intensity over 50% among five or six aged venture firms. Many other researches tried to classify BGV and Non_BGV, but there were various criterion as many as researchers studied on this topic. Some of them use time gap, which is time difference of establishment and it's first internationalization experience and others use export intensity, ration of export sales amount divided by total sales amount. Although using a mixed criterion of prior research in my case, I do think this kinds of criterion is subjective and arbitrary rather than objective, so I do mention my research has some critical limitation in the classification of BGV and Non_BGV. The first purpose of research is the test of difference of performance between BGV and Non_BGV. As a result of t-test, the research show that there are statistically efficient difference not only in the growth rate (sales growth rate compared to competitors and 3 years averaged sales growth rate) but also in general market performance of BGV. But in case of profitability performance, the hypothesis that is BGV is more profit (return on investment(ROI) compared to competitors and 3 years averaged ROI) than Non-BGV was not supported. From these results, this paper concludes that BGV grows rapidly and gets a high market performance (in aspect of market share and customer loyalty) but there is no profitability difference between BGV and Non_BGV. The second result is that BGV have more absorptive capacity especially, knowledge competence, and entrepreneur's international experience than Non_BGV. And this paper also found BGV search for product differentiation, exemption strategy and market diversification strategy while Non_BGV search for low price strategy. These results have never been dealt with other existing studies. This research has some limitations. First limitation is concerned about the definition of BGV, as I mentioned above. Conceptually speaking, BGV is defined as company pursue internationalization from inception, but in empirical study, it's very difficult to classify between BGV and Non_BGV. I tried to classify on the basis of time difference and export intensity, this criterions are so subjective and arbitrary that the results are not robust if the criterion were changed. Second limitation is concerned about sample used in this research. I surveyed venture companies just located in Seoul and Daejeon and also use only 84 samples which more or less provoke sample bias problem and generalization of results. I think the more following studies that focus on ventures located in other region, the better to verify the results of this paper.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.257-270
• /
• 1999

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors related to the intent of using home nursing of chronic disease patients who got out of a university hospital. For the purpose, the study selected 153 patients who were hospitalized and left K university hospital with diagnoses of cancer, hypertension, diabetes and cerebral vascular accident and ordered to be discharged and performed interviews with them and surveys on their medical records to obtain the following results. For this study a direct-interview survey and medical record review was conducted from June 28 to Aug. 30, 1998. The frequency and mean values were computed to find the characteristics of the study subjects, and $X^2$-test, t-test, factor analysis and multiple logistic regession analysis were applied for the analysis of the data. The following results were obtained. 1) When characteristics of the subjects were examined, men and women occupied for 58.8% and 41.2%, respectively. The subjects were 41.3 years old in aver age and had the monthly aver age earning of 0.99 million won or below, which was the most out of the total subjects at 34.6%. Among the total, 87.6% resided in cities and 12.4 in counties. The most left the hospital with diagnosis of cancer at 51.6%, followed by hyper tension at 24.2%, diabetes at 13.7% and cerebral vascular accident at 7.2%. 2) 93.5% of the selected patients had the intent of using home nursing and 6.5%, didn't. Among those patients having the intent, 85.6% had the intent of paying for home nursing and 14.4%, didn't. The subjects expected that the nursing would be paid 9,143 won in aver age and 47.7% of them preferred national authorities as the main servers. 86.3% of the subjects thought that home nursing business had the main advantage of making it possible to learn nursing methods at home and thereby contributing to improving the ability of patients and their facilities to solve health problems. 3) Relations between the intent of use and characteristics of the subjects such as demography-related social, home environment, disease and physical function characteristics did not show statistically significant differences among one another. Compared to those who had no intent of using home nursing, the group having the intent had more cases of male patients, the age of 39 or below, residence in cities, 5 family member s or more, no existence of home nursing servers, leaving the hospital from a non-hospitalized building, disease development for five months or below, hospitalization for ten days or more, non-hospitalization with in the recent one month, two times or over of hospitalization, leaving the hospital with no demand of special treatment, operation underwent, poor results of treatment, leaving the hospital with demand of rehabilitation services, physical disablement and high evaluation point of daily life. 4) Among those patients having the intent of using home nursing, 47.6% demanded technical nursing and 55.9%, supportive nursing. As technical nursing,' inject into a blood vessel ' and 'treat pustule and teach basic prevention methods occupied for 57.4%, respectively, topping the list. Among demands of supportive nursing, 'observe patients 'status and refer them to hospitals or community resources as available, if necessary' was the most with percent age point of 59.5. Regarding the intent of paying for home nursing, 39.2% of those patients wishing to use the nursing responded paying for technical services and 20.2, supportive services. In detail, 70.0% wanted to pay for a service stated as 'inject into a blood vessel', highest among the former services and 30.7%, a service referred to as 'teaching exercises needed to make the body of patients move', highest among the latter. When this was analyzed in terms of a relation between the need(the need for home nursing) and the demand(the intent of paying for home nursing), The rate of the need to the demand was found two or three times higher in technical nursing(0.82) than in supportive nursing(0.35). In aspects of tech ical nursing, muscle injection(1.26, the 1st rank) was highest in the rate while among aspects of supportive nursing, a service referred to as 'teach exercises needed for making patients move their bodies normally'(0.58, the 1st rank). 5) factors I(satisfaction with hospital services), II(recognition of disease state), III(economy) and IV(period of disease) occupied for 34.4, 13.8, 11.9 and 9.2 percents, respectively among factors related to the intent by the subjects of using home nursing, totaled 59.3%. In conclusion, most of chronic disease patients have the intent of using hospital-based home nursing and satisfaction with hospital services is a factor affecting the intent most. Thus a post-management system is needed to continue providing health management to those patients after they leave the hospital. Further, supportive services should be provided in order that those who are satisfied with hospital services return to their community and live their in dependent lives. Based on these results, the researcher would make the following recommendation. 1) Because home nursing becomes more and more needed due to a sharp increase in chronic disease patients and elderly people, related rules and regulations should be made and implemented. 2) Hospital nurses specializing in home nursing should be cultivated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.7-18
• /
• 1979

Almonds are one of the oldest sources of food and oil for man as used the ice cream, candy, roast, salting, chocolate, breads, backed, cookies, and flavoring ect. So, we wish to plant Almond in our country at the most parts of mountains. In this purpose we must be find out of both root stock of more compatibility and new techniques of grafting was rather simples as compared with the many steps of machinary involved today. This investigation has been carried out to reveral compatibility and practical controls of environment effectives involved in the occurence of each difference combination results in interspecific grafting of Almonds on the root stock of Prunus mandshurica and Prunus persica as materials during the 9 months period from March to November in 1978. With these selected scions were 4 varieties of Almond employing as the Hal1's hardy, Nonpareil, and Thompson grafted in the polyethylene green house with almost identical provision made for effective controls of automatical supplying to heating and mistsprayers as the $22{\sim}25^{\circ}C$ of temperature and 70~90% humidity. Following results have been obtained. Those environmental controls were more effective and practical to grafting unions and success by means veneer-grafting at the green house. 1. Hall's hardy Almond grafted on the root stock of Prunus persica was more compatibility than Prunus mandshurica. 2. The survival percentages as follows of the 95.33% of Hall's hardy/Prunus persica and 92.66% of Hall's hardy/Prunus mandshurica. And those were no significant between root stock of both species. 3. The 3 varieties of sweet Almond grafted on the root stock of P. mandshurica. And those were no significant between root stock of both species. 4. And the survival percentages as fellows. Thompson 92.66%, Nonpareil 90.66% and Kapareil 89.33% those grafted on the root stock of Prunus persica. 5. And then the survival percentage of interspecific grafts on the root Prunus mandshurica as follows of the materials of Thompson 89.66%, Nonpareil 87%, Kapareil 85%. 6. The analysis of variance were no significant among the interactions between 3 varieties Almond and 2 species of root stock plants. 7. And the growth of interspecific grafts of the high 161cm, diameter 12.3mm and length of roots 21.5cm growth as the Hall's hardy Almond grafted on the root stock of Prunus persica. 8. The root stock plants of Prunus mandshurica more effected to 6~8 days early developed leafing of scions and dark green colour than the Prunus persica. 9. The identical provision of automatic systems was more effective to graft unions and grafting process. 10. The veneer-grafting method at the green house was more effective and practical method for the mass production of Almond grafts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.26-36
• /
• 1979

Through several trials that has done for making the fertilizing-counter plan on the soil improving species, some results have been got as follows; 1. In the non-phosphorus dressing plots soil improving species have very poor survial ratio and show us to be died step by step. It may be resons that root can not make the nodule in case of non-phosphorus dressing and so tree could not absorb the nitrogen nutrient fixed by the nodule. And root competition with the weedy speces for utilizing the nutrient and oxygen in the soil could be reasons when planting in the heavy weedy rooting site. 2. Triple super phosphate, Fused Mg Phosphate and Fused super phosphate have showed the remarkable effects on the growth of soil improving species within 3rd year after planting. But Koreaan tablet fertilizer(9-12-4) for forest purpose have reacted considerably lower effect in comparision with the above powder and grain type phosphorous fertilizer. 3. In case of tablet type fertilizer tree root will have very little phosphorus absorbing surface because phosphorus can be utilized only from the tablet surface and root can not penetrate into the tablet. This my be reson to show the poor dressing reaction of tablet fertilizer but tablet fertilizer has a possibility to be utilized during long years as a sympton in photo 6. So tablet fertilizer can have a recommendation to dress much fertilizer at p]anting year and then tree root can get much more chance for absorbing the phosphorus that could keep the high survival and for utilizing it during many years without after dressing. 4. The granurar and powder type phosphate can develop the dense root mat like photo 8 because of giving the large surface for absorbing the phosphorus and weedy root can approch to the nodule for taking the nitrogen element. So this type seems to present better effect than tablet type to control the soil movement, stem weight as 200g per meter(l meter long${\times}$0.1m width). When added the lime any effect could not be found and rather give the negative effect. So Lespedeza seed sowing and phosphorus dressing system seems us to be very reasonable method for covering the raw material of basket making, fodder and fuel wood supply. 7. Fused Mg phosphate and Fused super phosphate are good fertilizer to the soil improving species and dressing more than 30g per seedling can be recommendable amount. 5. In the unproductive and dry soil with phosphorus fertilizer Robinia pseudoacacia and Alnus firnui can grow more than 2.3m in height at 3rd year and Alnus inokumae have the rapid height growth that is more than 1.8m at 2nd year. Depending on the growth situation like the above example minirotated management has possibilities and rapid covering of erosed land can be done with the soil improving species and phosphorus fertilizer. 6. In the Lespedeza sowing plot with 40g Fused Mg phosphate dressing per meter in the eroded and unproductive forest soil Lespedeza have completely covered this poor land and produced the green.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.25-39
• /
• 1971

Recently successful induction of haploid plant by means of anther culture method has become a big topic among geneticists and plant breeders. The haploid plant can be used as a precious material for such basic researches as mutation or genetics. Once the haploid is obtained, production of homozygous plant is not a difficult problem. The method of producing homozygous plant can, also, be applied to the practical breeding works. When applied to the hybridization of self-fertilizing breeding period would be greatly shortened and in cross-fertilizing vegetables production of uniform hybrid seed would be very easily obtained. Last few years many scientists attempted anther cultures using various plant species, but it was successful only in several species. Unlike the other tissue cultures which use somatic organs or tissues as explants, anther culture seems to be very difficult because the plants or calli have to be induced from the haploid microspores or pollen grains. In the present experiment anther culture of fruit trees and ornamental shrubs of four genera and seven species was attemped. Anthers of Various stages ranging from tetrad and late microspore were cultured on the modified Murashige and Skoog's medium supplemented with various concentrations of auxins and kinetin as growth regulators. Handling of materials, sterilization, and other operations of culture were done by routine methods. The results were summarized as follows: 1. Calli were induced in the anthers of Forsythia Koreana Nak., Rhododendron mucronuratum Turcz., R. yedoense Max. var. Poukhanense Nak., and Prunus armeniaca L. var. ansu Max. No signs of callus were observed in Prunus persica Sieb. et Zucc. var. vurgaris Max., Pyrus ussuriensis var. macrostipes (Nak.), and Prunus salcina Lindley. 2. Calli were easily formed in any of the media with differing concentrations of auxins and kinetin. 3. In F. Koreana calli developed from anther surface and connective. Callus emerging out of anther locule was not observed. 4. Somatic calli arose from filament, connective, and inside of anther wall in R. mucronulatum. Many of the microspores accumulated starch grains. 5. The anther lobes located opposite the filament of R. yedoense turned easily to calli. This phenomenon was not observed in R. mucronulatum. Microspore embedded for a period in the medium became starch pollen. No callus was observed arising from microspore. 6. In P. armeniaca calli were not induced from somatic anther tissues. Instead, callus emerged out of anther locule rupturing the anther slit. Starch was not formed in the microspore. 7. In P. persica, Pyrus ussuriensis, and P. salcina, calli were not observed in the anthers examined more than 60 days after culture. Microspores of these species, however, were free of starch grains even after long period of subculture. 8. It was learned that somatic calli of the species examined arose usually from endothelium of anther wall, septum of two neighboring anther locules, parenchyma tissues of connectives, or anther lobes. 9. In the anther locule of P. armeniaca cultured long in medium, swollen microspores, polynucleate microspores, multicellular pollen grains, or callus mass were frequently observed, this indicating that the callus of this species was microspore-origin. 10. It was clarified that in P. armeniaca production of haploid plant by anther culture might be possible.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.19-28
• /
• 1962

Total area of bamboo groves in Korea which is limited to $37^{\circ}$ north latitude, i.e., to southern part of Chungchung-nam-do Province and Kangwon-do Province, is 3,235ha., but this country must import about 3,000 metric ton's bamboo culms from Japan every year. It may be true that the country is not so fit for economical cultivation of bamboo groves from the view point of climatic condition, but the author believes that self-sufficiency in bamboo is not impossible if some scientific method for improving bamboo groves is introduced to our primitive groves. Keeping this point in his mind the auther tried to study on the bamboo groves in the country, and as the first step set about to investigate the actual state of twenty good bamboo groves located in Cholla-nam-do Province from March, 1961 to January, 1962. This is a report on some characters of bamboo culms and growing stock with samples collected in the present investigation. 1) Numbers of bamboo culm per 0.1ha. are 1,183 in average, 1,840 in maximum and 87.5 in minimum before harvesting. 2) According to owners' saying, 1960 was such an off-year that they could hardly see any yearling bamboos in groves, but in 1961 very many new bamboos are produced as follows: the proportion of the number of yearling bamboos produced this year to that of mature bamboos (over 2 years old) is 58.7% in average; the highest 110.5% and the lowest 16.8%. 3) the average diameter of culms at eye height is 6.5cm, but the biggest diameter comes to 11.2 cm, and the average diameters of yearling and mature bamboos are 6.5cm and 6.6cm respectively. 4) Internode length records 29.4 cm in average, the shortest 21.3 cm and the longest 38.4 cm. Average internode lengths of new culms and mature culms are 27.6 cm and 29.4 cm respectively. This shows that the internode length of new culms is in the decrease to that of maturer's. 5) Through this investigation, it was found that internode length is in the influence of the exposure and density of bamboo groves, i. e., the more the dencity of bamboo groves is and the more the exposure nears the north-east, the longer the internode length becomes (see Table 7 and 8). 6) In the growing stock of bamboo groves, bundles per 0.1ha. amount to 271 sok (unit of bundle) in total average, 445 sok in maximum and 126 sok in minimum. 7) Among twenty typical bamboo groves, chosen in each County in Cholla-nam-do Province, only one passes perfectly by Veda's standard rule* prescribing the good bamboo grove, but the eight groves shown in Table 9 could be recommended as good ones in Cholla-nam-do Province, because the auther believes that those groves may be improved better, if we pay more attention to the management of them. 8) Considering that they have managed their groves carelessly and primitively, and that unfortunately their groves must have faced almost on clear felling over the entire area at the time of the Korean War, we can surely expect much more increments in bamboo groves, if we introduce some scientific methods in managing their groves.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.45 no.5
• /
• pp.746-756
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate food safety knowledge, food safety attitudes, and handling behavior in the elderly. The survey was conducted on 358 individuals over 65 years old in urban and rural areas. Data were analyzed with descriptive analysis and ${\chi}^2$ test analysis of variance using SPSS. From the results on elderly's food safety knowledge, the item 'tangerines should be washed before eating' was correctly answered by urban subjects (75.4%) than rural subjects (49.7%). 'Is it okay to cook meat left on the sink since afternoon in the evening' showed the lowest correct answer rate in both urban (23.1%) and rural (31.9%) subjects. For the item related to food keeping, 'Bacterial cells do not multiply in Samgyetang when it is kept in a refrigerator right after boiling thoroughly', 58.5% of urban and 54.6% of rural elderly answered correctly. Most elderly people showed a tendency to think that boiled foods might be safe to eat. Secondly, for food safety attitudes, urban elderly had more proper attitude regarding the item, 'Namul is very tasty only when mixed with bare hands' (disagree rate 34.9%) than rural elderly (P<0.05)'. On the other hand, rural elderly had more positive attitudes regarding the store principle "first in, first out" compared to urban elderly (P<0.001). Thirdly, regarding food safety behaviors, only 67.9% of urban and 58.7% of rural elderly responded that they washed their hands right after answering the telephone while cooking. Exactly 33.8% of urban and 39.6% of rural older people replied 'defrost meat on top of sink or table' as the defrost method for frozen foods, showing that elderly did not recognize the risk of foodborne illness during improper defrosting at room temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.909-919
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the demand and use of fresh-cut produce in school foodservice and restaurant industries. The subjects of this survey study were 200 school nutritionists and 70 cooks or managers in the restaurant industry nationwide. The data were collected by means of self-administered or e-mail questionnaires. Data analysis was completed using the SPSS window (ver. 12.0) program including frequency, $\chi^2$-test and t-test. Survey questions assessed the general characteristic of respondents, and the supply, use, and demand of fresh-cut produce in school foodservice and restaurant industries. Over 74% of the subjects have used fresh-cut produce. Most of the school foodservice (84.0%) kept fresh-cut produce for one day, while restaurant industry (28.3%) kept them up to three days. The nutritionists of school foodservice and managers of restaurant industry considered origin and date of production as the most important factor, respectively, when fresh-cut produce were being used. Fresh-cut root vegetable, such as potato and carrot was used mostly. The main reason not to use the fresh cut produce was due to the distrust of the fresh-cut produce safety in school foodservice and cost in restaurant industry. The main problem in fresh-cut produce use was the need of rewashing (29.9%) in school foodservice and irregular size (39.0%) in restaurant industry. These results indicate that the quality standard and size specification must be prepared with production guideline of safe fresh-cut produce.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.93-104
• /
• 2002

A field survey and experiment was conducted from 1996 to 1998 to develop rational technology for turfgrass vegetation of runway side of Incheon International Airport on the reclaimed tidal land in Young-Jong Island. Backfill of the experimental site was finished on August 1995. The experimental site was 8 ha located in the middle of the construction place for the main parking lot in front of the terminal building construction. The experimental field was drained by main open ditch, and divided three main plots, no subsurface tile drain, subsurface tile drain spacing with 22.5m, and with 45 m, respectively. The 17 sub plots were designed to test the effect of soil covering with red earth loam by 5 cm and 20 cm depth, application of chemical compound fertilizers and livestock manures, dressing of artifical soils and hydrophylic soil conditioners. The tested turfgrasses were three transplanting indigenous turfgrasses, Zoysia koreana, Zoysia sinica and Zoysia japonica, and two hydroseeding mixed exotic turgrasses, cool type I(tall fescue 30%, kentucky blue grass 40%, perenial ryegrass 30%), and cool type II(tall fescue 40%, perenial ryegrass 20%, fine fescue 20%, alkaligrass 20%). The soil backfilled with dredged seasand was sand textured with high salt concentration and low fertility. The soil showed high pH, low organic matter and low available phophate contents. The percolation rate was fast with high hydraulic conductivity. Desalinization was fast after installation of the main open drainage system. No subsurface tile drainage effect was found showing little difference in turfgrass growth. The covering and visual growth of turfgrasses were the best in the 20-cm soil covering with compound fertilizer treatment. The covering and visual growth of turfgrasses were satisfactory in the 5 cm soil covering with compound fertilizer treatment and with livestock manure treatments. The hydrophillic soil conditioner treatments were effective but expensive at present. The coverage and visual quality of turfgrasses were good for Zoysia koreana and Zoysia japonica. The coverages of turfgrasses by the hydroseeding with the mixed exotic turfgrasses were less than transplanting of native turfgrasses. In conclusion, for the runway side vegetation purposes, the subsurface tile drainage might not necessary as main open ditch drainage be sufficient due to fast percolation rate of the backfilled dredged seasand. The 5 cm soil covering with red earth might be sufficient for the runway side, but the 20 cm soil covering might be necessary for the runway side where high density of turfgrass coverage was necessary to protect from the airplance air blow.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2010

Purpose: This retrospective study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of radiation therapy (RT) and to investigate the prognostic factors for thymoma when treated with RT. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 21 patients with thymoma and also received RT from March 2002 to January 2008. The median follow-up time was 37 months (range, 3 to 89 months). The median patient age was 57 years (range, 24 to 77 years) and the gender ratio of males to females was 4：3. Of the 21 patients, complete resections (trans-sternal thymectomy) and R2 resections were performed in 14 and 1 patient, respectively. A biopsy was performed in 6 patients (28.7%). The WHO cell types in the 21 patients were as follows: 1 patient (4.8%) had type A, 10 patients (47.6%) had type B1-3, and 10 patients (47.6%) had type C. Based on Masaoka staging, 10 patients (47.6%) were stage II, 7 patients (33.3%) were stage III, and 4 patients (19.1%) were stage IVa. Three-dimensional RT was adminstered to the tumor volume (planned target volume), including the anterior mediastinum and the residual disease. The total RT dose ranged from 52.0 to 70.2 Gy (median dose, 54 Gy). Consistent with the WHO criteria, the response rate was only analyzed for the 6 patients who received a biopsy only. The prognostic factors analyzed for an estimate of survival included age, gender, tumor size, tumor pathology, Masaoka stage, the possibility of treatment by performing surgery, the presence of myasthenia gravis, and RT dose. Results: The 3-year overall survival rate (OS) and the progression free survival rate (PFS) were 80.7% and 78.2%, respectively. Among the 10 patients with WHO cell type C, 3 of 4 patients (75%) who underwent a complete resection and 3 of 6 patients (50%) who underwent a biopsy survived. Distant metastasis developed in 4 patients (19.1%). The overall response rate in the 6 patients who received biopsy only were as follows: partial remission in 4 patients (66.7%), stable disease in 1 patient (16.6%), and progressive disease in 1 patient (16.6%). Acute RTOG radiation pneumonitis occurred in 1 patient (4.8%), grade 2 occurred in 2 patients (9.5%), grade 3 occurred in 1 patient (4.8%), and grade 4 occurred in 1 patient (4.8%). A univariate analysis revealed that the significant prognostic factors for OS were age (${\geq}60$, 58.3%; <60, 100%; p=0.0194), pathology (WHO cell type A-B3, 100%; C, 58.3%; p=0.0194) and, whether the patient underwent surgery (yes, 93.3%; no, 50%; p=0.0096). Conclusion: For the 15 patients who received surgery, there was no local failure within the radiation field. In patients with WHO cell type C, surgical procedures could have resulted in a more favorable outcome than biopsy alone. We report here our clinical experience in 21 patients with thymoma who were treated by radiation therapy.