Simultaneous use of bleomycin and radiotherapy in malignant tumours of the head and neck.

Twenty cases originally diagnosed as epidermoid carcinoma were observed with a view to determining whether a combination of radiation and intravenous bleomycin promoted regression of the tumours and if so what effect this had on survival. Signs of local toxicity with this combination were also looked for. Five cases yielded what was considered to be an excellent response, nine cases gave a good response and six cases had a poor response. It is recommended that future studies be carried out in epidermoid carcinoma with this combination of radiotherapy and bleomycin.