[Role of radiation therapy in the treatment of patients with small cell lung cancer].

The paper presents a review of up-to-date literature on the problems of morphological heterogeneity of small cell lung cancer, clinico-morphological parallels, main prognostic factors and rationale for application of radiation therapy in the complex treatment of the disease. The authors also discuss their own findings on 208 cases, with 170 of them having localized tumor. Superfractionated irradiation of a locoregional zone with 1.2 Gy thrice a day was conducted at the initial stage of treatment (total dose--46.8 Gy). As a result, complete regression was obtained in 65.5% and partial regression in 34.5%. All patients with localized tumor survived six months after radiation chemotherapy, 58.5%--12 months, and 57.1%--24 months.