EFFECT OF THERAPEUTIC IRRADIATION OF CARCINOMA OF CERVIX ON LIVER FUNCTION

AS PART of a larger study of the lipid transport mechanism in health and in a variety of pathologic states, including that resulting from exposure to ionizing radiations, it was thought desirable serially to observe changes in the hepatic tests of patients undergoing therapeutic radiation for cancer.

In the voluminous literature dealing with the systemic results of irradiation we were able to find no systematic studies of liver function and little unanimity on the presence or absence of hepatic participation in the systemic reaction to irradiation. In most discussions of the relative radiosensitivity of various tissues the liver is described as being radioresistant, though occasional reports suggest the opposite. As examples of the latter, Ellinger¹ has stated that the liver is exceedingly radiosensitive (increased urobilinogenuria after ordinary fluoroscopic examination) and Levitt² has mentioned that patients with liver disease tolerate radiation poorly, exhibiting severe constitutional symptoms when exposed to