OUTCOME OF CHEMODECTOMA PATIENTS

We have treated 11 chemodectoma at the radiation oncology department of Ankara University Medical School between the years 1980 and 1992. Nine of the patients are jugulotympanic paragangliomas and the other two are located on neck (carotis body-glomus vagale). Patients are between the ages of 40 and 65, nine are women and two are men, ratio of women to men is 4.5:1. Primary therapy was radiotherapy in four patients and the other seven were treated with combined modality (surgery+RT). We applied 200 cGy daily fractions and total dose was between 4000-5000 cGy. Patients are followed 16 to 155 months with a median follow up of 64 months. Local control rate is %90.9 (10/11) and no serious complication has been seen caused by radiotherapy. We tried to obtain the optimal treatment plan on a patient with the help of 3-dimensional treatment planning computer. With 3-dimensional unconstrained treatment plan which is corrected for inhomogenities we obtained an homogenous dose distribution.

Keywords: Chemodectoma, radiotherapy