[Radiotherapy of bladder malignomas with rapid electrons (author's transl)]

After having been submitted to mainly transurethral electroresection, a not selected group of patients (n = 143) with bladder carcinomas of different, mostly advanced stages (TIS and TI = 4 patients, T2 = 33, T4 = 13) was irradiated with the circular accelerator (betatron) applying a telecentric pendulum method with a small angle. The total dose of 5100 rd (51 Gy) which we wanted to achieve hitherto was administered to 129 patients; 14 patients received a lower dose. Radiogenic complications were unimportant. Only 25 patients presented a cystitis during and after radiotherapy which disappeared after treatment. A contracted bladder as final condition was seen in 5.5% (8 patients) of all irradiated patients. The three-year survival rate of all stages was 44.9%, the five-year survival rate of 31.3%.