Ionizing radiation for treatment of benign conditions.

Ionizing radiation has been used much more frequently in the past than at the present in the treatment of benign conditions. As progress continued in the medical sciences, the use of radiotherapy narrowed considerably due to better understanding of the nature of ionizing radiation and its potential complications. Other agents have replaced ionizing radiation in some areas, but there are still conditions that benefit from this treatment.

Prolactin-secreting tumors.

A case of galactorrhea induced by hyperprolactinemia has been reported. This patient had bronchogenic carcinoma, undifferentiated, spindle-cell-type, and underwent a pneumonectomy followed by postoperative irradiation of the mediastinum. The initial surgical resection, followed by irradiation, returned the abnormal levels of prolactin secretion to normal.

Detection of a brain metastasis from osteosarcoma with 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate bone scanning.

99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (MDP) bone scintigraphy demonstrated localization in an intracranial metastasis of osteogenic sarcoma. This unusual case suggests that bone scintigraphy may have diagnostic value in the early diagnosis of metastatic ossifying lesions.