Role of radiotherapy in the treatment of the primary non-Hodgkin's lymphomas of the central nervous system

Case report about two patients suffering from cranially localized non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After surgical intervention both patients received radiotherapy. In both cases homogeneous telecobalt irradiation of the total CNS was carried out with a local radiation dose of 32 Gy except for the field of primary tumour (localized by computer tomography) where 42 Gy was delivered. The fractions consisted of 1.5 Gy in the cranial and 2 Gy in the spinal region. One patient is in remisson phase 3 years after the operation, the other one died of cerebral haemorrhage 3 months after the intervention. The autopsy revealed no traces of histologically detectable tumour tissue. (L.E.)