Total body irradiation with linear accelerator for bone marrow transplantation in acute leukemia and lymphosarcoma

Since April 1978, we have applied total body irradiation (TBI) for the purpose of total cell kill of acute leukemia and lymphosarcoma which fell into curable limits with conventional therapy and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) successively. Prior to BMT, patients were conditioned for engraftment with cyclophosphamide, followed by 1000 rads TBI with 6 MV or 10 MV Linac X-ray. Marrow cells were infused 24 hours after TBI. The logest survival was 765 days after BMT and this patient was still alive at the end of May 1980. The treatment was tolerated reasonably well, with acceptable side effect of radiation and graft versus host reaction. (author)