Treatment of Cervical Carcinoma with High-Dose Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy: Two Years Follow-Up Study

Aims: This study focused on pelvic recurrence rate and late complications following treatment with high doserate brachytherapy with a three fractionation scheme. Setting and design: This retrospective observational studywas conducted from 1st November 2003 to 31st March 2005 at a tertiary care centre. Methods and materials:Women were treated with external beam radiotherapy and three fractions of high dose rate brachytherapy,divided into two broad groups IIB+ IIIA and IIIB+IVA. Duration of follow-up was 2 years and main outcomemeasures were recurrence and rectal and urinary bladder complications. Results were assessed with the Chisquare test and P-values using an alpha level of 0.05 for Type I error.
Results: Of the total of 286 women, 72(25.4%) developed central-regional recurrence. Overall two year pelvic control rate was 74.6%, with values of78.1% and 72.8% for stages IIB+ IIIA, IIIB+IVA, respectively. Five women developed distant metastasis and21.5% suffered low grade rectal complications. After two years the prevalence of bladder complications wasonly 5.4%.
Conclusion: Using a three fraction scheme, high dose rate brachytherapy is safe and effective in themanagement of cervix cancer.