Changes in external respiration in electron therapy of lung cancer

Functional changes in external respiration and gas exchange were investigated in two groups of patients who had undergone radiation therapy for inoperable central planocellular cancer of the lung by the split course method. In irradiation of patients with with an electron beam of high energies and in gamma-therapy an improvement of external respiration indices was noted in the equal number of observations. With worse spirographic indices a decrease in gas exchange in electron irradiation was less marked than in gamma-therapy