Bleomycin, methotrexate and vincristine before irradiation of stage III and IV laryngeal and pharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. A study initiated by the Danish Society of Head and Neck Cancer.

Primary treatment with bleomycin, methotrexate and vincristine for two weeks followed by curatively intended 60Co irradiation was administered to 153 patients consecutively referred to the three main treatment centres in Denmark over more than a two-year period. Seventy-one laryngeal and 82 pharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas were evaluated. According to the TNM classification (UICC) 76 patients had stage III and 77 patients stage IV disease.

A randomized study of radiotherapy versus radiotherapy plus chemotherapy in stage I-II non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

In a randomized, prospective trial from 1974-1978, 73 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in clinical Stage I or II were treated with extended field radiotherapy alone (RT) or RT plus adjuvant chemotherapy with vincristine, streptonigrin, cyclophosphamide and prednisone (RT + CT). With a median follow-up time of five years, 54% have relapsed in the RT group versus only 10% in the RT + CT group (P less than 0.01).

Prophylactic irradiation in bronchogenic small cell anaplastic carcinoma. A comparative trial of localized versus extensive radiotherapy including prophylactic brain irradiation in patients receiving combination chemotherapy.

A total of 114 patients with bronchogenic small cell anaplastic carcinoma and staged as having regional disease all underwent combination chemotherapy consisting of CCNU, cyclophosphamide, and methotrexate. They were randomized to receive either radiotherapy to the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes (4000 rad) or extensive radiotherapy, which included the brain, adrenals, and upper retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Fifteen patients were free of disease after 18 months of chemotherapy and the treatment was discontinued.

Bleomycin as adjuvant in radiation therapy of advanced squamous cell carcinoma in head and neck.

Since 1969, Bleomycin (BLM) has been used in three different ways at the Radium Centre in Copenhagen. First BLM given as the sole treatment led to complete regressions in 12% of 138 patients (12). Secondly BLM was used as simultaneous adjuvant in radiation therapy for 86 previously untreated patients, but 66% developed mucositis which disrupted the treatment.

Radiation therapy of squamous carcinoma of the floor of mouth and the lower alveolar ridge.

Treatment for 139 patients with squamous carcinomas in the floor of mouth and the lower alveolar ridge, which accounted for one-third of all patients with intra-oral cancer, are evaluated and classified after UICC and AJC's TNM recommendations retrospectively, for cancer staging and End Result Reporting. The figures include 50% women with tumours and in lower alveolar ridge. Two treatment schemes: external cobalt irradiation and external irradiation in combination with intra-oral radium-mould have been used in spite of primary bone invasion.

Clinical use of combined bleomycin and radiation therapy for head and neck tumours and testicular cancers.

The Bleomycin advantages are resumed with special reference to the use in combination with irradiation. More vigorous effect were seen in patients given Bleomycin one hour before irradiation twice to three times weekly than after irradiation alone. For head and neck tumours the effect of two weeks Bleomycin treatment alone showed 40 per cent distinct shrinkage and in this group 73 per cent of the patients were tumour-free after a full course of radiotherapy, compared to 38 per cent in the group showing no response to Bleomycin-pretreatment.