Effects of fast neutrons on the eye. A preliminary communication.

Patients with advanced tumours of the head and neck have been treated with fast neutrons from the Medical Research Council's cyclotron at Hammersmith Hospital for the last 5 years. In 62 per cent of the first hundred cases there was complete regression of the tumour and in only two cases did the tumour recur (Catterall and Vonberg, 1974). The effects of these 7-5 MeV neutrons on the normal tissues which are unavoidably irradiated have also been studied and, in the relatively short period of follow-up available, these effects have been entirely acceptable in skin, mucous membranes, and bones in the great majority of cases. The ophthalmic changes seen in relation to the doses received are described in this paper.