唐司 則之¹, 小野田 昌一¹, 磯野 可一¹, 石川 達雄²

Noriyuki TOHNOSU¹, Shoichi ONODA¹, Kaichi ISONO¹, Tatsuo ISHIKAWA²

¹千葉大学医学部第二外科, ²放射線医学総合研究所

¹Second Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Chiba University, ²National Institute of Radiological Sciences

キーワード : Neck lymph node, Cancer, Radio-chemotherapy, Ultrasonographic characterization, Therapeutic effect

　The therapeutic effect in cancer has been assessed by the regression rate of the tumor. Changes in ultrasonographic characterization were studied further to establish new criteria for the assessment. In N.I.R.S. from April 1983 to February 1985, thirty nine sites were examined in 20 cases of recurrent or metastatic neck lymph nodes, half of which were five esophageal cancer and five breast cancer patients.
　The ultrasonographic changes in boundary and internal echo were characterized as three gradings for the assessment, respectively. Grade I was no or slight change and Grade III was marked change, while Grade II was almost intermediate change between Grade I and Grade III. These gradings were well correlated with the regression rate of the tumor and therefore, the therapeutic effect in lymph node size and its histological type was evaluated ultrasonographically.
　On lymph node size, smaller than 2.0 cm was as favorable as 69.2%, followed by 2.1 to 5.0 cm (40.9%) and over 5.1 cm (0%) especially in Grade III of internal echo. Whereas, on histological type, malignant lymphoma revealed most favorable (70%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (33.3%) and adenocarcinoma (11.1%) especially in Grade III of boundary. In order to evaluate the therapeutic effect in more detail, further analysis will be required to compare the changes in ultrasonographic characterization with the pathological findings after radio-chemotherapy.
　In conclusion, ultrasonographic criteria of boundary and internal echo have proven to be extremely useful for the assessment of the therapeutic effect in cancer.