Gerald V. Hartman

The influence of radiation therapy quality control on survival response and sites of relapse in oat cell carcinoma of the lung preliminary report of a southwest oncology group study

Two hundred and ninety‐eight patients with limited (confined to chest and supraclavicular area, encompassable by a single radiation portal) small cell carcinoma of the lung were entered on Southwest Oncology Group Protocol 7628. Patients were treated with multi‐agent chemotherapy and radiation therapy with or without BCG. Radiation therapy quality control analysis, including dosimetric reconstruction and port film review was introduced after the protocol was activated and was retrospectively applied. Patients who were considered major protocol variations had statistically worse survival (40 weeks versus 60 weeks; P = 0.002), a lesser improvement in response rate after induction chemotherapy (27 versus 48%; P = 0.05) and a higher chest failure rate (77 versus 55%; P = 0.047) than evaluable patients. Five patients relapsed in the brain, all associated with chest failure. Quality control is essential in cooperative group studies.

Carcinoma of the urinary bladder: Role of radiation therapy

Abstract The charts were reviewed of 79 patients with a diagnosis of carcinoma of the urinary bladder, who were managed by radiotherapy between 1%5 and 1972. All patients were irradiated with curative intent, either radical or pre-operative treatment. The majority of the patients were found to have advanced stage and high grade tumors. All living patients have been followed up for at least 5 years; for those who died, the date of death has been recorded. The 5 year survival was 1566 (23%) patients for group I (radiation only) whereas 6 of 13 (46%) patients survived five or more years in group II (pre-operative radiation therapy). At least 20–30% of invasive bladder tumors could be eradicated with radiation therapy alone. Although this is a retrospective study on a small group of selected patients, a trend in the present data suggests that the 5 year survival may be increased when a moderate dose of radiation is given pre-operatively.