Abstract

Superiar vena cava syndrome(SVCS) is oncologic emergency with typical clinical features. The diagnosis can be made by physical findings(PF), simple chest X-ray(CXR) and compu- ted tomogram(CT) scanning. The treatment of choice is radiation therapy(RT). We analyzed clinical data of SVCS in g cases diagnosed by PF & CT acanning and treated by 6 MV linear accelerator during the past 1 year at deparment of radiology, Catholic Medical College. The results were as follows; 1) Vine cases consist of 7 males and 2 females. Their ages ranged from 16-71 years. 2) Pathologic diagnosis were bronchogenic carcinoma(4 cases), dysgerminoma(1 case), embryonal carcinoma(1 case) and undetermined(3 cases). 3) Most frequent PF of SVCS were neck vein distension, facial edema, dyspnea in decrea- sing order. 4) The fractionation of RT usually included 3 4 initial fractian af 300~400 rad, fallowed by additional daily dose of 180-200 rad to complete tota1 4,000~6,000 rad tumor dose. During those times, We used therapeutic planning computer. 5) We observed complete or partial response in 8 cases on 1st to 14th day of RT.