THERAPY RESPONSE MONITORING IN BULKY CERV ICAL-CARCINOMA PRIMARILY TREATED WITH CHEMOTHERAPY BY USING COLOR-CODED PULSED DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY

The aim of this prospective pilot study was to investigate the ranking of color coded Doppler sonography as a parameter for therapy response in bulky cervical carcinoma, clinical stage FIGO Ib2 to Ilb primarily treated with intraarterial chemotherapy. Doppler sonography was perfo rmed before each of the two chemotherapy cycles as well as preoperativ ely. During chemotherapy the number of found intratumoral Vessels decr eased from 3.5 to 2.7 in the average. The maximum systolic velocity dr opped from 0.16 to 0.13 m/s. The mean RI diminished from 0.73 to 0.67. In spite of significant reduction of tumor volume there was no differ ence in the mean RI of both uterine arteries. There was a correlation of tumor volume reduction and the decrease in the number of intratumor al vessels (p=0.002). The number of intratumoral vessels seems to be a sensitive parameter far the demonstration of therapy-induced changing s in the tumor vascularisation of bulky cervical carcinomas. Color cod ed Doppler sonography could therefore provide a new non-invasive metho d for therapy response monitoring and should be prospectively investig ated in a larger patient population.