TREATMENT OF PHARYNGEAL CANCER: FRACTIONAL DOSE METHODS OF EXTERNAL IRRADIATION

The optimistic reports following the application of the more recent radiologic methods for the treatment of pharyngeal cancer by external irradiation with daily fractional doses not only have furnished a new stimulus to therapeutic endeavor but also have served to usher in a new radiologic era which augurs a better understanding of the basic principles involved and a more hopeful outlook for future progress in the conquest of the more radioresistant lesions. To the French school under Regaud and Coutard belongs the credit of popularizing and stressing the value of such protracted treatment with fractional doses in therapy both with the gamma and with the roentgen rays. The most important principles involved may be stated as (1) the optimal daily fractioning of the total dose, (2) the total duration or chronology of treatment in days or weeks and (3) the production of a more intense reaction of the