Influence of age on the results of brachytherapy for early tongue cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the influence of elder age on the results of brachytherapy for early (T1-2 N0 M0) oral tongue cancer and examine the compatibility of low-dose rate (LDR) with high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy.


METHODS
We analyzed 591 patients treated at Osaka University Hospital between 1967 and 1999. We compared the results of radiotherapy for 156 elderly patients (137 LDR and 19 HDR) 65 years of age or older and 435 patients (383 LDR and 52 HDR) less than 65 years of age.


RESULTS
HDR brachytherapy showed the same local control rate as LDR brachytherapy (81% at 3 years). Elderly patients showed a poorer local control rate (75% at 3 years) than the younger group (83% at 3 years)(p = 0.002). Multivariate analysis identified age as the only prognostic factor for local control (p = 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
HDR brachytherapy achieved the same result as LDR brachytherapy. However, the elderly patient showed a higher rate of local recurrence after brachytherapy.
Department of Radiology, Biomedical Research Center, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
H
H
Yamazaki
T
T
Inoue
K
K
Yoshida
A
A
Imai
Y
Y
Yoshioka
E
E
Tanaka
S
S
Shimamoto
S
S
Nakamura
T
T
Inoue
H
H
Nakamura
S
S
Furukawa
K
K
Shimizutani
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D015996:Survival Rate; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*