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Th e opinion regarding sexual and vaginal function of patients with advanced cervical cancer treated primarily by chemoradiotherapy has still not been formed, mainly due to inappropriate methodology as the control group was comprised of healthy women. Th e aim of this study is to, by means of interview, evaluate vaginal and sexual function of patients with advanced cervical cancer before and after chemoradiotherapy and compare the results. A number of  patients were irradiated by teleradiotherapy dose of  Gy in  fractions over  weeks to the pelvis and additional - Gy in - fractions were given by intracavitary HDR brachytherapy. Patients received  mg/m  of cisplatin once a week, which is a total of - cycles of cisplatin. Patients answered the questions in a form of a questionnaire specifi cally created for cervical cancer (EORTC-QLQ-Cx ), for the period immediately before diagnosed cervical cancer (thus being a control group). Th ey also answered the same questions for the period starting  months after the completion of concomitant chemoradiotherapy, and were an experimental group at the time. For the testing of statistical signifi cance of diff erences among the examined groups parameter and non-parameter tests were used (the Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Student' s t-test). Th e diff erence p<. was considered statistically signifi cant. Vaginal problems of patients after chemoradiotherapy were statistically reduced ( versus ; p<.). Th ere is no statistical signifi cance in the vaginal function among the analyzed groups but weaker pain during intercourse was registered after chemoradiotherapy (p=.). After chemoradiotherapy, patients' vaginal function is extremely improved whereas there is no diff erence in the sexual function. Pain during intercourse is statistically reduced after chemoradiotherapy.

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BackgroundThe aim of the study was to examine on the CT basis the inter-application displacement of the positions D0.1cc, D1cc and D2cc of the brachytherapy dose applied to the bladder and rectum of the patients with inoperable cervical cancer.Patients and methodsThis prospective study included 30 patients with cervical cancer who were treated by concomitant chemo-radiotherapy. HDR intracavitary brachytherapy was made by the applicators type Fletcher tandem and ovoids. For each brachytherapy application the position D0.1cc was determined of the bladder and rectum that receive a brachytherapty dose. Then, based on the X, Y, and Z axis displacement, inter-application mean X, Y, and Z axis displacements were calculated as well as their displacement vectors (R). It has been analyzed whether there is statistically significant difference in inter-application displacement of the position of the brachytherapy dose D0.1cc, D1cc and D2cc of the bladder and rectum. The ANOVA test and post-hoc analysis by Tukey method were used for testing statistical importance of differences among the groups analyzed. The difference among the groups analyzed was considered significant if p < 0.05.ResultsThere are significant inter-application displacements of the position of the brachytherapy dose D0,1cc, D1cc and D2cc of the bladder and rectum.ConclusionsWhen we calculate the cumulative brachytherapy dose by summing up D0,1cc, D1cc and D2cc of the organs at risk for all the applications, we must bear in mind their inter-application displacement, and the fact that it is less likely that the worst scenario would indeed happen.

Introduction: Using computed tomography (CT) and treatment planning systems (TPS) in radiotherapy, due to the difference in photon beam energy on CT and linear accelerator, it is necessary to convert Hounsfield units (HU) to relative electron density (RED) values. The aim of this dosimetric study was to determine whether there is a significant effect of potential in the CT tube, field of view size (FOV), and phantom dimensions on the CT conversion curve CT-RED. The second aim is whether there are significant differences between the CT-RED obtained by the Computerized Imaging Reference Systems (CIRS) Thorax 002LFC phantom and the “reference” curve in the TPS, obtained by the CIRS 062M pelvis phantom, at the same CT conditions.Methods: Heterogeneous CIRS 062M and CIRS Thorax 002LFC phantoms were used, which anatomically and dimensionally represent the human pelvis, head, and thorax, with a set of known RED inserts. They were scanned on a CT LightSpeed GE simulator and obtained CT-RED.Results: The high voltage in the CT tube had a significant effect on the HU (t = 10.72, p < 0.001) for RED values >1.1, while FOV as a parameter did not show statistical significance for the 062M pelvis phantom. Comparing the slopes (062M pelvis and head) of the CT-RED for RED ≥ 1.1, the obtained value is t = 1.404 (p = 0.163). In the case of a 062M pelvis and a 002LFC phantom, we have seen a difference in RED values (for the same HU value) of 5 % in the RED region ≥ 1.1 (bone).Conclusion: Patients should be imaged on a CT simulator only at the potential of the CT tube on which the conversion curve was recorded. The influence of the FOV and scanned phantom dimensions is not statistically significant on the appearance of the calibration curve (RED ≥ 1.1).