HYBAROXIC RADIATION THERAPY

REVIEW OF TWO YEAR EXPERIENCE WITH 167 PATIENTS

¹ From the Tumor Institute, St. Mark's Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah

1. In a 2 year period, 167 patients were treated with cobalt 60 radiation therapy while inhaling ioo per cent oxygen at 3 atmospheres of pressure. No patient was anesthetized. Results in cases of head and neck lesions and bronchogenic carcinoma are reported.

2. Hybaroxic radiation therapy seems to produce more dramatic tumor regression than conventional dose techniques and probably also than comparable higher individual tumor dose techniques without oxygen.

3. Few interstitial implantations are required with hybaroxic therapy in head and neck lesions.

4. Head and neck lesions seem to respond particularly well to oxygen. While we were underdosing tumors initially, our present results are very gratifying. Local recurrences seen mostly with earlier smaller doses were reduced with present techniques.

5. No significant number of undue complications or of unusual metastases was observed.

6. Time-dose schedules become very critical, and very accurate field set-up at each treatment is crucial since the sligh test error even once can result in underdosing the tumor.

7. In bronchogenic carcinoma, our results compare quite favorably with those of other published series but hybaroxic oxygen radiation therapy has not produced any significant improvement over earlier therapy in a nonrandomized group in our own material.

8. It is still essential to carry out randomized studies to evaluate the effect of oxygen in the treatment of tumors at various sites.

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