Clinical values of transrectal ultrasound in judging GTV of cervical cancer

Purpose: To investigate the clinical value of transrectal ultrasound in judging the Gross Target Volume (GTV) of cervical cancer (CC).

Methods: A total of 196 CC patients admitted to the Department of Radiotherapy, China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, from January 2016 to June 2019 were selected as the study subjects. The GTVs before and after applicator insertion were determined by transrectal ultrasound and compared with those judged by MRI.

Results: All 196 patients were successfully undergoing applicator insertion according to the pretreatment plan. The GTV doses reached the clinical requirements during treatment. There was no significant difference between the GTVs judged by MRI and ultrasound before insertion in terms of upper/lower diameter (MRI Before 1 vs. Ultrasound Before 1) (MB1 vs. UB1), left/right diameter (MB2 vs. UB2), or ventral/dorsal diameter (MB3 vs. UB3), and the intragroup correlation coefficients (ICC) were 0.59, 0.77, and 0.66, respectively; moreover, there was no significant difference between the GTVs judged by MRI and ultrasound after insertion in terms of MRI After one vs. Ultrasound After one (MA1 vs. UA1), MA2 vs. UA2, and MA3 vs. UA3, and the ICC values were 0.62, 0.79, and 0.76, respectively.

Conclusions: Transrectal ultrasound can satisfactorily determine the GTV of CC and has certain value in brachytherapy for CC.