TREATMENT OF RETINOBLASTOMA (RETINAL GLIOMA) SURGICALLY AND BY IRRADIATION

Abstract

In 1936, we published a preliminary report¹on the treatment of bilateral retinoblastoma by a technic of fractionated irradiation which had not previously been used for this form of cancer. That report was based on 6 cases of bilateral growths in which one eye had been removed and the other irradiated in an attempt to control the growth and conserve vision. One of the purposes of this communication is to give the follow-up to date in these 6 cases and to submit preliminary data on 4 more recent cases of bilateral retinoblastoma in which the treatment was similar. In the present report we shall also discuss the other clinical forms and stages of retinoblastoma (unilateral tumors, advanced bilateral growths with the vision irreparably destroyed by the time of admission, postoperative recurrent retinoblastoma and widely disseminated retinoblastoma), in the treatment of which radiation therapy as a means of conserving vision