III. Results of the X-ray Treatment of the Reticuloses

Abstract

I am fortunate in being able to present to you, as my contribution to the symposium, the survival figures of a group of 298 cases of the reticuloses following their treatment with X rays. The results come from the Christie Hospital, Manchester, and are presented by courtesy of Dr. Ralston Paterson. The treatment of the reticulo-endothelial diseases has been one of my main interests while in Manchester, but this group, the 1940–44 cases, which have recently matured at five years, do not represent personally treated cases. It has, unfortunately, not been possible to do more than prepare a statistical assessment of the results and individual cases are not considered in detail Care has been taken, however, to ensure that there are no “masqueraders” in the various disease groups and, in particular, all cases in which there was any suggestion whatever of doubt as to the diagnosis have been discarded. The group is, therefore, not as large as it might have been, owing to this discarding. In the assessment of treatment results for the reticuloses, one is immediately confronted with many difficulties among which may be mentioned the questions of whether a surviving patient is free from disease or not, and whether staging can be achieved with reasonable accuracy. Furthermore, there are many different reticuloses with possibly different prognoses which occur so infrequently that their separate classification renders groups far too small to be of statistical value.