Radiotherapy, Surgery, and Immunotherapy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Radiotherapy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Present Status of Radiation Therapy of Cancer: An Overview

      • Henry S. Kaplan

      Pages 3-38

   3. Physics of Radiation Therapy

      • Robert J. Shalek

      Pages 39-50

   4. Molecular and Cellular Biology of Radiation Lethality

      • M. M. Elkind, J. L. Redpath

      Pages 51-99

   5. Cell Proliferation Kinetics and Radiation Therapy

      • J. Denekamp, J. F. Fowler

      Pages 101-137

   6. Radiation Effects on Normal Tissues

      • J. F. Fowler, J. Denekamp

      Pages 139-180

   7. Hypoxic Cell Sensitizers for Radiotherapy

      • G. E. Adams

      Pages 181-223

   8. Effects of Radiation on Animal Tumor Models

      • Robert F. Kallman, Sara Rockwell

      Pages 225-279

   9. High-LET Radiations

      • Eric J. Hall

      Pages 281-315

   10. Stem Cells, Nonproliferating Cells, and Their Kinetics in Normal and Neoplastic Tissues

       • Milan Potmesil, Joseph LoBue, Anna Goldfeder

       Pages 317-398

3. Surgery

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 399-399

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   2. The Changing Role of Surgery in the Treatment of Cancer

      • Bernard Fisher

      Pages 401-421

4. Immunotherapy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 423-423

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   2. Immunotherapy of Human Cancer

      • Evan M. Hersh, G. M. Mavligit, J. U. Gutterman, S. P. Richman

      Pages 425-532

5. Back Matter

   Pages 533-544

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The history of the development of cancer therapy has been marked by a recurring pattern, one of initially exciting and encouraging results as new methods were introduced, followed by dismaying failures. The extremity of the disease and its high mortality have dictated that each means of damaging tumor cells would be rapidly explored and exploited as a mode of therapy, long before the correspond­ ing theory and technique were completely understood and perfected. Thus radiation was used as an antitumor agent almost immediately following recogni­ tion of its cytodestructive capability. Equally constant, following the rapid utilization of new therapeutic methods, has been a period of significant technical improvements. This second aspect of the pattern is also illustrated by the field of radiotherapy. New radiation sources, new methods of dosimetry, use of high-energy radiation, and other new techniques allowed the therapist to better focus upon the tumor and to improve the geometry of exposure. Thus, with each technical advance, the "reach" of radiotherapy was increased and damage to normal tissues was decreased. Inevitably, however, a limit was reached, a point at which clinicians and researchers realized they could go no further without returning to a more fundamental search, one based on the biology of the tumor cell itself.

• cancer
• cell
• dosimetry
• immunotherapy
• mortality
• radiation
• radiotherapy
• surgery
• tumor

• M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, University of Texas System Cancer Center, Houston, USA

  Frederick F. Becker

Policies and ethics