To the Editor:—
The article in The Journal, Sept. 12, page 133, entitled "New Horizons in Radiotherapy," is in general a paean in praise of "super"-high-voltage radiotherapy. However, the author, Prof. H. S. Kaplan, makes some statements which are so much at variance with clinical and physical facts that comment seems mandatory. He states that some data which he credits to, among others, G. H. Fletcher, "convincingly establish that supervoltage beams can eradicate deep-seated cancers more often than [can] conventional x-ray therapy." He seems to have forgotten the report of the conference on supervoltage techniques held at Highland Park, Ill., in May, 1957, published under his editorship as "Research in Radiology" by the National Academy of Sciences in 1958. Leading radiotherapists took part in this conference, and it was the consensus that there was no valid proof of improved cure rates with supervoltage, at least to that date. Indeed, Dr.