Preliminary results of MRI-guided brachytherapy in cervical carcinoma: the Chiangmai university experience

This study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging (mri) in the treatment planning of image-guided brachytherapy for cervical carcinoma. seventeen consecutive patients with locally advanced cervical cancer were enrolled in the study. fifteen patients could be evaluated. when comparing the tumor at diagnosis (gtv-dx) and the tumor at the first brachytherapy (gtv-bt),11 of 15 patients showed a tumor regression of more than 80% while only four patients had less than 80% tumor regression. the mean d90 of hr-ctv and the calculated d2cc of the bladder,rectum,and sigmoid were 99.2 ± 11 gy,87.7 ± 5.7 gy,68.4 ± 5.4 gy and 70.3 ± 6.8 gy,respectively. no grade 3-4 acute toxicity was observed. the mri can be a valuable tool for evaluating tumor response after external beam radiotherapy (ebrt) and is very helpful for prognosis prediction by residual gtv evaluation. furthermore,mri-guided brachytherapy allowed us to optimize the dose for both the target volumes and the oars.