Tandem-vaginal cylinder applicator for radiation therapy of uterine adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

Preoperative radiotherapy for stage II adenocarcinoma of the endometrium was studied in 74 patients using the University of Kentucky tandem-vaginal cylinder applicator. The intrauterine tandem and vaginal cylinder were inserted and loaded at the same time or sequentially. Forty to 45 Gy of fractionated whole pelvis photon radiotherapy was combined with the single intracavitary insertion which gave 20 Gy to a parauterine isodose at 2 cm and to the vaginal surface. Treatment with this system gave a 5 year survival rate of 88% with a 4% complication rate for stage II corpus adenocarcinomas.