The association of tumors and roentgenray treatment of the thorax in infancy

Abstract

T has been the practice for many years in I this country to irradiate cnlarged thymus glands in infancy.These children appeared to be an excellent group for study oL late effects of radiation; we are now reporting our findings from such an investigation.First used by Friedlander in 1904 for the relief of symptoms alleged to be due to the enlarged gland, irradiation was later used for prophylactic purposes in symptomless children.After the appearance of papers challenging the concept of thymic deaths,3.16,23fewer children received irradiation.However, probably because of newspaper publicity and legal interest in the past,3* 18, 2o a f i r m belief in the condition developed among the laity; and a surprisingly large number of children are being treated at the present time?T h e concept of status thymicolymphaticus is no longer generally accepted, and it seems probable that most of those treated were normal infants.It is likely that the beneficial effects of radiation in those suffering from respiratory symptoms were due to its action on inflamed mucous membranes or lymph nodes rather than on the thymus g l a ~~d .~T , 3* Many of the deaths attributed to the thymus were probably due to overwhelming infection.43Along with scattered reports on such ill effects as mental retardation, tetany, and deaths from radiation toxemia, the literature contains four follow-up studies of children who had received thymic radiation.Three of these', 24, 33 concern only 125 children, of whom relatively few had been treated more than ten years previously.Few were less than 9 months old at the time of irradiation.Two authors deliberately excluded children with certain types 01 illness.Jn two qtudies the proportion of traced chil-