Radiation Therapy with Curative Intent in the Malignant Lymphomas

The fundamental concepts underlying the definitive treatment of Hodgkin’s disease and the other malignant lymphomas with radiotherapy are not new; they were defined more than forty years ago by the late Swiss radiotherapist, Rene Gilbert [1] and effectively applied by Dr. Vera Peters [2, 3] and others during the kilovoltage era of radiotherapy. However, the advent of modern megavoltage apparatus has freed the radiotherapist of the severe technical limitations formerly imposed by his equipment and made it possible to implement fully the ideas advocated by Gilbert. These technical advances, coupled with the great improvements in the accuracy of diagnostic evaluation and staging described above by my colleague, Dr. Saul Rosenberg [4], have now brought about a veritable revolution in the clinical management and prognosis of these once-dreaded neoplasms [5].