Interstitial HDR-brachytherapy in patients with oral cavity cancers - preliminary treatment results based upon material of Institute of Oncology in Gliwice

To present the treatment results and the rate of acute side effects associated with interstitial HDR-brachytherapy in patients with cancer of the oral cavity. We evaluated the data charts of 24 patients - 16 (67%) men and 8 (33%) women treated between the years 1999-2003. A majority of patients presented with lip cancer - i.e. 14 (54%); the next most common diagnosis was cancer of the oral part of the tongue - 5 (22 %). In 12 (50%) patients HDR-brachytherapy was performed after primary surgery and in 5 (22%) cases - after teleradiotherapy, in order to deliver the boost dose. In all the cases interstitial radiotherapy was performed using flexible, after loading catheters. The median total dose at the reference point was 33 Gy (range: 15-45 Gy) and median treatment time was 5 days. Median target volume surrounded by the therapeutic isodose was 15.7 cml (range: 3-52 cml). Median follow up was 25 months (range: 36-838 days). Local control and disease free survival rates after two years of follow-up were 76% and 42%, respectively. Generally the overall survival rate in the entire group was 84%. In patients with lip cancer these results were, on average, higher by some 10%. Only one patient suffered from severe mucositis which resolved after four weeks of local treatment. Interstitial HDR-brachytherapy is a useful method of postoperative treatment in patients with positive or uncertain surgical margins and it can also be considered as an alternative method to deliver the boost dose in association with fractionated external beam regimes. The toxicity of interstitial HDR-brachytherapy is acceptable and the method is well tolerated by the patients. (author)