Extended-field radical radiotherapy in advanced Hodgkin's disease: short-term results of 2 randomized clinical trials.

stances, determined with the aid of lymphangiography and other special diagnostic procedures; (d) to evaluate the tolerance of normal tissues in patients treated with extended-field, high-dose radiations. Patients who met the defined eligibility criteria were assigned to alternative treatment groups at random after an extensive diagnostic evealuation, which included lymphangiography, open bone marrow biopsy, and a battery of liver function tests, as well as other, more routine procedures in all cases. All patients were carefully examined at serial intervals, following completion of the defined radiotherapeutic program. Follow-up intervals are not yet long enough to permit evaluation of comparative sur vival in the various treatment groups. However, it is clear that extended-field megavoltage radiotherapy to doses in the rango of 4000 rads, given at the rate of about 1000 rads/week, is sur prisingly well tolerated; there have been virtually no major com plications, and most of the observed hématologie,respiratory, neurologic, and endocrine complications have been relatively mild and transient in nature.