Irradiated lung cancer. An autopsy analysis of spread pattern.

The spread pattern was studied in 48 autopsied cases of irradiated, apparently localized lung cancer. Disease was found in the upper abdomen in 52%, in the brain in 8.7%; in the bones in 20.8%; and confined to the thoracic cavity in 27%. Radical irradiation controlled 38% locally. The pattern of metastasis in these irradiated lung tumors did not seem to differ from that of unirradiated lung cancers reported elsewhere.