Second preliminary report of the M.D. Anderson study of neutron therapy for locally advanced gynecological tumors

Ninety-six patients with advanced gynecological tumors were treated in whole or part with fast neutrons at the MDAH-TAMVEC facility. Of these, thirty-seven patients were treated with neutrons only or a neutron boost following photon irradiation. In the remaining fifty-nine patients a mixed beam technique was used, consisting of twice-weekly neutron doses of 65 rad nγ and three-times-weekly photon doses of 200 rad. The best therapeutic ratio was observed in this group, although the patients treated with neutrons only had, on average, more advanced disease. The local tumor-control rate achieved with mixed beam therapy was superior to that in a comparable group of forty patients treated during the same period with photons alone, but no improvement in survival has so far resulted, due to an excess of deaths from metastatic disease and other causes in the mixed beam group. The preliminary results for a subset of patients treated in a prospective randomized clinical trial comparing mixed beam and photon treatments show a similar trend. (author)