Mycosis fungoides: retrospect, current understanding, and prospect.

After a brief historical view of mycosis fungoides from Alibert's time to the present, the authors go on to detail the average biologic course of mycosis fungoides, give a protocol for investigating patients with disease as extensively as modern means permit, review past and present staging schemes, and finally, review treatment as practiced today and speculate upon what may yet be practiced to the better in the future.

The rampant basal-cell carcinoma: report and lessons of a case.

The case of a patient with a basal-cell carcinoma over a clavicle that escaped early treatment and became widespreadand deeply burrowing is recounted. It was first treated by radiotherapy, seemed to have been cured thereby, but two years later showed recurrence. It was then treated by Mohs' fresh-tissue technique which cleared the skin but exposed invaded bone and uncertain depth of involvement below. Radical extirpative surgery was subsequently attempted on two occasions, but when invasion was found to have involved major vessels in the neck, further treatment had to be abandoned. Some lessons of the case are discussed.

Radiotherapy for bronchogenic carcinoma.

Treatment of carcinoma of the lung to cure or even to prolong survival time to a satisfactory degree is not yet a reality. For squamous cell carcinoma confined to the lung, radical surgery offers the best possibility of cure. When surgery is not feasible in such a case for other than technical reasons (eg, poor general condition of the patient), radical (megavoltage) radiotherapy offers a good possibility of cure. For anaplastic or oat cell carcinoma confined to the lung, cure by surgery or radiotherapy is less likely and there is little advantage of one or the other of these modalities. Once metastasis has occurred, surgery is largely precluded and radiotherapy becomes a measure of last resort that offers a good possibility of relief of distressing symptoms and some hope of prolonging worthwhile life.

Modern radiotherapy for malignant epitheliomas.

There are exceptional cases of malignant epitheliomas in which radiotherapy is at once or eventually becomes a treatment of last resort. We recount the clinical facts, histologic findings, radiotherapeutic techniques, and results of treatment of seven such cases.

Radiotherapy for aggressive and destructive keratoacanthomas.

An experience of treating five cases of aggressive and destructive keratoacanthomas by radiotherapy is recounted. The results were satisfactory in every instance.

Computerized (axial) tomography in the serial study of cerebral tumors treated by radiation. A preliminary report.

The difficulty in evaluating the effectiveness of radiation therapy of primary cerebral tumors is well appreciated. Changes in the tumor size and the presence or absence of edema or necrosis during or following treatment cannot be readily evaluated by present noninterventive roentgenographic methods. At New York University Medical Center, computerized (axial) tomography (CT) has been routinely used both before and after radiation therapy with the aim of assessing, by noninterventive means, tumor response, presence or absence of edema, or necrosis. A selected series of patients is presented with correlation of the clinical findings and CT-scan results both before and after therapy. The significance of these findings and their implications in the management of cerebral tumors are discussed.