Comparative Study between Acute Side Effects in Patients Treated with Brachytherapy versus External Beam Radiotherapy in Early Stage Endometrial Cancer

Abstract Background Adenocarcinoma of the endometrium is the most common malignancy of the female genital tract. The main line of treatment of early stage endometrial cancer is total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy followed by adjuvant radiotherapy either external beam radiotherapy or vaginal brachytherapy. Aim of the Work To compare acute toxicities between patients who received adjuvant high-dose- rate (HDR) vaginal brachytherapy (VBT) and those who received external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in early stage endometrial cancer. Patients and Methods This is a retrospective study was conducted on 62 patients with histologically proven endometrial carcinoma at the Clinical Oncology Department, Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt for 6 months from January 2020 to December 2022. Results The results of this study showed that different side effects were less frequent in HDR VBT group than in EBRT group, the differences were statistically significant only in nausea, diarrhea, bleeding per rectum, dysuria, abdominal pain, bony aches and skin toxicity. Among cases with acute side effects, grades of side effects were lower in HDR VBT group than in EBRT group, but the differences were statistically non-significant. Conclusion HDR-VBT may be a less toxic option than EBRT for the adjuvant treatment of early stage endometrial cancer. However, more research is needed to confirm these findings and to better understand the long-term risks and benefits of each treatment option.