Long-term curative results of radiotherapy of patients with inoperable prostatic carcinoma. Erskine Memorial Lecture, 1978.

A series of 59 consecutive patients with inoperable carcinoma of the prostate were entered into a national cooperative study and treated under the tenets of a strict protocol with competent dosimetric control. Twenty-one of these men are living and well 5--10 years after treatment; nine others who lived without cancer from 5 to 10 years died of other diseases. Local recurrences were not demonstrated in several cases which came to autopsy. Failures are often due to the development of osseous metastases outside of the effective area of radiotherapy. Untoward effects are the exception and may be minimized by fractionation.