170 Applied Biophysics 



the radiation effects. This chart indicates a merely temporary 

 inhibition of growth of the tumor tissue. Qinically, the lesion 

 appeared to heal and there was no evidence of growth 6 months 

 after treatment. The tumor reappeared later in the treated area 

 and caused the death of the patient 16 months after the beginning 

 of treatment. 



Figure 5 illustrates the reaction to treatment of another epi- 

 thelioma of the cervix uteri, clinical stage 2, Broders grade 3. 

 There are only minor fluctuations in the cell counts, and the 

 chart indicates the persistence of tumor activity almost unchanged 

 by the type of radiation treatment given. Clinically, however, 

 the lesion appeared to be healed after 3 months. Three months 

 later a "recurrence" of the tumor in the treated area was diag- 

 nosed, and the patient died 6 months later with growth in the 

 treated area and wath extensions. 



In these 3 illustrative cases of carcinoma colli uteri (figures 

 3 to 5 ) , the lesion appeared to be healed 3 to 6 months after treat- 

 ment, although in 2 of the cases the histologioal-reaction chart 

 ( figures 4 and 5 ) indicated the persistence of active tumor 

 growth. In both these cases, the tumor recurred subsequently. 

 In a series of 150 cases of carcinoma colli uteri, 26 cases reported 

 clinically satisfactory during the first 4 months after treatment 

 developed a "recurrence" during the succeeding 8 months ; in 

 each case the reaction chart, obtained within 3 weeks of beginning 

 treatment, indicated the persistence of tumor activity. ^^ 



The histological findings based on a quantitative analysis of 

 the cell population of young foci in serial biopsies seem to give 

 a reliable and early indication of the likely outcome of radio- 

 therapy in individual cases, whereas clinical healing is useful 

 as criterion in the evaluation of therapeutic results only if it 

 persists for the conventional period of 5 years. Practically all 

 tumors shrink to some extent under treatment — presumably 

 owing mainly to the damage inflicted on parts of the vascular 

 system supplying the growth and to its sequelae — and this shrink- 

 age allows of the restoration of the normal anatomical configura- 

 tions in spite of the persistence of active, microscopic tumor foci. 

 Decrease in tumor volume of itself is no real measure of the 



