[Historical experiences in trying different overall treatment times in x-ray therapy of malignant head and neck tumors in the 1920s and 1930s].

UNLABELLED

BACKGROUND/MATERIAL: Today as well as in the first decades of this century the time factor has been one central subject of radio-oncological research. Before World War II, all possible overall treatment times ranging from 1 day to several months were under clinical investigation. A major portion of these historical irradiation schemes is documented in the German written literature of this time period, particularly in the journal "Strahlentherapie".

RESULTS

In Paris, Coutard continuously extended treatment duration in X-ray therapy of malignant head and neck tumors. As illustrated by a reevaluation of these treatment results, with his work Coutard has laid the first foundation for today's international widely used conventional overall treatment times of 6 to 7 weeks. Other authors in the 1920s and 1930s, like Zuppinger or Holthusen, preferred use of slightly shorter overall times.

CONCLUSIONS

In retrospect, evidence from these historical evaluations must be regarded as very limited especially from a statistical standpoint of view. Without knowledge of the underlying raw data, particularly the results and conclusions of Coutard which had major impact on the later development of radiation therapy cannot be verified anymore. This indicates the value of publishing raw data in modern radio-oncology as well.