Treatment of Leukemia by Extracorporeal Irradiation

Abstract

THE first attempt to irradiate the circulating blood outside the body was made by Heymans¹ in 1921. In the following three decades several other investigators undertook studies of extracorporeal irradiation in animals-^{2 3 4} In the light of current knowledge, extracorporeal irradiation appears to have at least three important objectives. The first is the study of lymphocyte physiology by destruction of these radiosensitive cells in the circulating blood. Utilizing extracorporeal irradiation, Cronkite and his colleagues⁵ have carried out a series of elegant studies on the lymphocyte physiology of the calf. The second purpose is destruction of immunologically competent cells in the circulating . . .