Sidney Rubenfeld

Radiation therapy in alveolar soft part sarcoma

A case of alveolar soft part sarcoma is presented. Metastatic foci in the lungs were used as a test site to ascertain response to irradiation. A dosage of 5,500 rads given over 36 days did not influence the tumors. This case confirms the propensity of alveolar soft part sarcoma to metastasize to the lungs, the slow rate of growth, and radioresistance of pulmonary metastatic deposits.

Treatment of Bronchogenic Cancer with Conventional X-Rays According to a Specific Time-Dose Pattern

This is A report of 43 patients with advanced nonresectable cancer of the lung who received conventional x-ray therapy according to an abbreviated time-dose pattern and showed subjective and objective improvement. Inoperable carcinoma of the lung is essentially an incurable disease either because of its local extension to vital structures (1) or because of distant metastasis. Experience has shown that when a dose of radiation sufficient to eradicate the local disease is delivered, irreparable changes in the surrounding normal lung tissue may be produced. While the morbidity secondary to these changes is incapacitating, it would be a small price to pay were the disease cured. However, with the frequent incidence of local extension and/or distant spread, both of which mitigate against cure, one should be circumspect in delivering high dosage to the lung. There is little doubt that irradiation can induce a significant degree of palliation in a great many patients. This should be accomplished with a dose that...

Irradiation in preventing gynecomastia induced by estrogens

Abstract Symptomatic breast changes usually accompany endocrine therapy for prostatic cancer. Thirteen patients with cancer of the prostate were given external irradiation to their breasts prior to initiation of estrogen therapy in the hope that undesirable changes in the breast would not occur. Our results were satisfactory.

Unusual manifestations of carcinoma of the nasopharynx. A case report

A case of carcinoma of the nasopharynx which occurred in a 21‐year‐old Negro man is reported. He developed metastasis in the left humerus which simulated a primary bone tumor. This was studied by biopsy, angiography, and a strontium‐85 scan. He subsequently complained of pain in the right humerus. Angiography and strontium‐85 scan revealed metastasis in the bone before x‐ray verification. X‐ray therapy induced prompt pain relief.

Attempts at modification of the radiation response of neoplasms by the administration of hematoporphyrin.

A solution of hematoporphyrin was admiaistered intravenously or locally to patients with advanced carcinoma. This was combined with treatment by ionizing radiation. There was no evidence of a potentiating effect when the hematoporphyrin was injected intravenously. In the group of 5 patients in whom the tumors were injected locally, there was an enhanced radiation effect in 1 patient. Aspects of the tumorlocalizing properties of hematoporphyrin are discussed. (auth)

Gonadal exposure incident to roentgen therapy.

Because of its genetic effect, there has been much concern about gonadal exposure to man-made radiation. Geneticists (1) feel that there is no threshold dose below which mutations are not produced. Low doses are mutagenic, and all doses, however distributed, are cumulative. At the present time, diagnostic radiology is the major contributor to gonadal exposure of the populace. To the individual, however, exposure from radiotherapy is greater than that from any other source. The scope of the problem from the point of view of roentgen therapy is emphasized in the study made for the National Academy of Sciences by Laughlin and Pullman (2) who estimated that the number of x-ray treatments given by radiologists to persons under thirty in the year 1955 was 1.9 million. To this figure must be added the number of treatments given by dermatologists. Clark (3) estimated that 25 per cent of treatments in all age groups are for nonmalignant ailments. The remaining 75 per cent are for malignant diseases, where genetic ...

Rational dosage in I 131 treatment of hyperthyroidism.

Arational approach to the problem of dosage in treating hyperthyroidism with I131was developed following a review of cases seen in the Radioisotope Clinic of the Jewish Memorial Hospital in New York and in the private practice of the authors over the past seven years. The combined series numbered 294 patients (237 female and 57 male), and in the course of the study, several points of interest emerged. Most striking was the smallness of the dose used in the earliest cases. In 1952 and 1953 the Clinic was feeling its way along, and initial doses of the order of 3 and 4 millicuries were routine. It was felt at the time that a small dose, repeated at suitable intervals, was safer for the patient than a single much larger dose. It soon became evident, however, that the additional doses were often not needed; the initial small dose of a projected series became the total dose; and remissions lasting up to eight years at the time of writing were regularly observed. The administered dose was calculated for each pa...