Newer Palliative Measures in the Management of Inoperable Bronchogenic Carcinoma

¹ Clinical Professor of Medicine, New York University, Bellevue Medical Center.
² Chief, Department of Radiation Therapy; Director, Radioisotope Unit, Veterans Administration Hospital, Bronx, New York.

1) The significant and growing number of new patients with inoperable bronchogenic cancer makes it mandatory that every new palliative measure be employed to contribute toward the maintenance of their comfort and useful activity during the relentless downhill progress of their disease.

2) Recent advances in widely varied fields of therapy have made possible newer palliative measures which provide amelioration of intractable symptoms, prolongation of useful life, and even a rare chance for cure.

3) The authors have assembled them here and have presented, as well, their combined experience with several hundred patients in the use of radiation therapy, the nitrogen mustards, thoracosurgical and neurosurgical procedures, and a variety of newer palliative medical measures. Radiation therapy, in particular, has provided the most effective and the most prolonged palliation. This agent gives real promise of becoming even more useful in the near future.