EXPERIENCE AT THE HOSPITAL ERASTO GAERTNER RADIOTHERAPY DEPARTMENT FROM 2005 TO 2019 - FOCUS ON TREATMENT TIME PER PATHOLOGY

Objective: This study aims to analyze the radiotherapy treatment duration per neoplasia at the Hospital Erasto Gaertner Radiotherapy from 2005 to 2019. Method:Analysis consisted of the treatments duration in patients who received radiotherapy. The patients stratification criterion was their pathology. From January 2005 to June 2019, 85698 cases were treated there, 16282 patients were diagnosed with prostate carcinoma (19%). The duration of the radiotherapy varied from 34 to 55 days, the average duration was 45 days. Regarding breast treatments, there were 18185 cases (21%), the duration of the radiotherapy varied from 13 to 38 days, the average duration was 25 days. Concerning the head and the neck, there were 26649 cases (31%), the treatment duration varied between 20 to 65 days and the average treatment duration was 42 days. The greatest cause of treatment interruption were performance losses or treatment complications. About cervical and endometrial treatments, there were 12989 cases of cervical (11%) and 3427 cases of endometrial (4%), the variable treatment duration between 23 to 53 days (cervical), median average of 49 days; variable duration between 22 to 51 (endometrial) and median average of 36 days. Lung cancerwere 5% of the treated pathologies (5141 cases), their treatment periods varied between 18 to 47 days, median average of 33 days. Esophagus radiotherapy treatments corresponded to 4% of the cases (4284 cases), variable time from 10 to 43 days, median time of 32 days. All patients submitted to palliative treatments were not considered in this study. Discussion:Hypofractionated radiation treatment did not show itself to be inferior to the conventional one. It is necessary to quantify the statistics regarding each patients treatment timeto evaluate the logistics impacts in radiotherapy services. In this study, it was possible to see that pathologies that are common to radiotherapy routine, as breast, prostate, head, and neck, may take more than 60 days of machine use. The hypofractionated radiation treatments lowered the radiotherapy treatment duration significantly, especially considering breast patients. Conclusions: The hypofractionated radiation treatments should be applied, whenever possible, since they allow the radiotherapy treatment service to be expanded. The great number of evaluated patients in this study shows the systematic clinical interventions may lower the interruption length in treatments.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
23. Oktober 2019