Clinical use of combined bleomycin and radiation therapy for head and neck tumours and testicular cancers.

The Bleomycin advantages are resumed with special reference to the use in combination with irradiation. More vigorous effect were seen in patients given Bleomycin one hour before irradiation twice to three times weekly than after irradiation alone. For head and neck tumours the effect of two weeks Bleomycin treatment alone showed 40 per cent distinct shrinkage and in this group 73 per cent of the patients were tumour-free after a full course of radiotherapy, compared to 38 per cent in the group showing no response to Bleomycin-pretreatment. Moderately differentiated squamous cancer showed just as good response as highly differentiated tumours. The one year survival using subsequent treatment of Bleomycin and irradiation, compared to an historical material showed improved survival rate for T3 laryngeal cancers, as well as all stages of testicular carcinomas given simultaneous Bleomycin twice weekly under the full course of postoperative irradiation to regional lymph nodes.