[The superior vena cava syndrome as an emergency in radiotherapy]

Between 1983 and 1988 90 patients with bronchial neoplasms needed emergency irradiation to treat superior vena cava syndrome. Pathohistologically verified were 30 cases with squamous cell carcinoma, twelve with adenocarcinoma, five cases with large cell carcinoma, 30 with a small cell carcinoma, and non-differentiated in five others. No histological examination was carried out in eight cases. Im 30 patients distant metastases were evident at the initial diagnosis. The average duration of follow-up was 118 days. The survival course proved to be independent of histopathological grading, previous treatment, and age. Similarly no influence of the fractionation employed could be seen. Very important to the prognosis however, were the stage of disease, the Karnofsky index, and dependent on that, the total reference dose applied. Patients with a Karnofsky index of 50% or lower survived on average only 17 days.