Radiotherapy in Thoracic Neoplasms

¹ Associate Attending Radiation Therapist, Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases.

From an evaluation of the present status of radiotherapy in thoracic neoplasms, both primary and metastatic, five suggestions are made for the improvement of present results:

1. Better appreciation by the medical profession of what can even now be accomplished.

2. Provision of more supervoltage x-ray and telecobalt apparatus, and of more trained radiation therapists to use them.

3. More use of intelligent pre-operative and post-operative irradiation, and of radioactive implants at operation.

4. More hopeful treatment of hematogenous metastases,

(a) of primary bronchogenic cancer to the brain or liver.

(b) of pulmonary metastases from extrathoracic primary sites.

5. Investigations directed to the discovery of

(a) a truly synergistic chemotherapeutic agent

(b) the significance of free-floating cancer cells in the blood

(c) a means of preventing or treating radiation damage to the lungs.