Radiotherapy of childhood haemangiomas: From active treatment to radiationrisk estimates

Childhood skin haemangiomas have been subjected to many different kinds of active treatment. From the beginning of the twentieth century and up to 196 0-1970, radiotherapy maintained a dominating place in this treatment, altho ugh during the latter part of this period its role was more and more questi oned. Starting in 1958, I felt that, based on the scientific literature and on my own observations at Malmo University Hospital, active therapy includ ing radiotherapy should be abandoned since it had turned out to be unnecess ary and, furthermore, could be harmful. This viewpoint resulted from an inc reased knowledge of the natural history of the disease. I then got the poss ibility to establish a follow-up study cohort at Sahlgrenska University Hos pital in Goteborg with the aim of gaining information on early and late rad iation effects following childhood radiotherapy. Later, the study cohort wa s enlarged by pooling with similar cohorts originating from Stockholm and P aris. A summary of the results of the epidemiological studies is also prese nted here. This historical overview reflects half a century of radiation th erapy and radiation protection philosophy. It contains a basic message poin ting to the value of proper and reliable collection of medical data and to the importance of local, regional and national registers, to preserve the i nformation.