Comment

The value of selecting patients for surgery or irradiation or both by means of a screening procedure such as the cytohistopathological techniques herein described is most intriguing. If one could determine the biological aggressiveness of a neoplasm, the host resistance of the patient, and the radioresponsiveness of both tumor and normal tissue, a rational basis for therapeutic selection of patients could be made available. The main question to be answered is whether such selection can improve survival results by using various modalities of treatment. Or is the end result biologically determined and the ultimate outcome unaffected by the modality of treatment? It is gratifying to learn that survival figures as reported by Glucksmann and Way and by Graham and Graham suggest a trend in the right direction; that is, patients with poor radioresponsiveness can be salvaged by radical surgery. If this proves to be the case, application to other sites