• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2013

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) have been used as a powerful fusion modality in nuclear medicine not only for detecting cancer but also for staging and therapy monitoring. Nevertheless, there are various causes of FDG uptake in normal and/or benign tissues. The purpose of present study was to investigate whether additional delayed imaging can improve the diagnosis to differentiate the rates of FDG uptake at axillary lymph nodes (ALN) between malignant and benign in breast cancer patients. 180 PET/CT images were obtained for 27 patients with ALN uptake. The patients who had radiotherapy and chemotherapy were excluded from the study. $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT scan at 50 min (early phase) and 90 min (delayed phase) after $^{18}F$-FDG injection were included in this retrospective study. The staging of cancers was confirmed by final clinical according to radiologic follow-up and pathologic findings. The standardized uptake value (SUV) of ALN was measured at the Syngo Acquisition Workplace by Siemens. The 27 patients included 18 malignant and 9 ALN benign groups and the 18 malignant groups were classified into the 3 groups according to number of metastatic ALN in each patient. ALNs were categorized less than or equal 3 as N1, between 4 to 9 as N2 and more than 10 as N3 group. Results are expressed as the mean${\pm}$standard deviation (S.D.) and statistically analyzed by SPSS. As a result, Retention index (RI-SUV max) in metastasis was significantly higher than that in non-metastasis about 5 fold increased. On the other hand, RI-SUV max in N group tended to decrease gradually from N1 to N3. However, we could not prove significance statistically in malignant group with ANOVA. As a consequence, RI-SUV max was good indicator for differentiating ALN positive group from node negative group in breast cancer patients. These results show that dual-time-point scan appears to be useful in distinguishing malignant from benign.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.30 no.1_2
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• pp.177-183
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• 2018

Purpose : Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy(VMAT) has the advantage of uniformly and precisely irradiating the tumor to the shape of the tumor while reducing the risk of radiation damage to normal tissues. such as brain cancer, head and neck cancer and prostate cancer, It is being used for treatment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the Jaw-Tracking technique(JTT) in VMAT for brain and head and neck cancer. Materials and Methods : We selected eight patients with brain and head and neck cancer(4 Brain, 4 head and neck) who were treated with the VMAT treatment technique. Contouring information of the patient's tumor and normal organ was fused to the Rando phantom using the deformable registration of Velocity(Varian, USA). A treatment plan was developed using the Varian Eclipse(ver 15.5, Varian, USA) with the same patient actual beam parameters except for the use of jaw-tracking. As the evaluation index, the maximum dose and mean dose of target and OAR were compared and a portal dosimetry was performed for the treatment plan verification. Results : When using JTT, the relative dose of OAR decreased by 5.24 % and the maximum dose by 7.05 %, respectively, compared with the Static-Jaw technique(SJT). In the various OARs, the mean dose and maximum dose reduction ranges ranged from 0.01 to 3.16 Gy and from 0.12 to 6.27 Gy, respectively. In the case of the target, the maximum dose of GTV, CTV, PTV decreased by 0.17 %, 0.43 %, and 0.37 % in JTT, and the mean dose decreased by 0.24 %, 0.47 % and 0.47 %, respectively. Gamma analysis The JTT and SJT passing rates were $98{\pm}1.73%$ and $97{\pm}1.83%$ on the basis of 3 % / 3 mm, respectively. Comparing the doses of all OARs applied to the experiment, it was found that the use of JTT resulted in a significant decrease in dose due to additional jaw shielding besides MLC than SJT. Conclusion : In radiation therapy using VMAT treatment plan, we can apply JTT in the case of adjacent tumor and normal organs such as brain cancer and head and neck cancer, and in radiotherapy required large field and high energy caused increase leakage dose through MLC. It is considered that the target dose of PTV can be increased by lowering the dose of normal tissue surrounding the tumor.