NEW TREATMENT FOR CANCER

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 16

NEW TREATMENT FOR CANCER

Successful Use Of Atom-Smasher

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LOS ANGELES, April 29.

Treatment with a small atomsmasher has removed all traces of malignancy in 48 of 74 deep cancer patients treated in little more than a year at Stanford (California) University. Dr. Malcolm Bagshaw, a radiologist at the university, reported this today to the California Medical Association.

But he emphasised that it was far too early to call these results cures. Five to 10 years free of the disease would constitute what doctors called a cure, he said. The initial apparent successes included a child 22 months old with cancer of the eye, one of the most common forms of malignancy in the very young. Besides' the 48 encouraging cases, cancers at certain sites in five other patients disappeared under this treatment but the malignancies broke out in other parts of their bodies. Twenty-one of the 74 patients received no help from the atom smasher, Dr. Bagshaw said. These included eight who had been treated previously with conventional X-ray equipment, three who were far advanced and had no hope of great benefit, and three who could not be found later for check-ups. That left only seven cases giving definite evidence of failure. The 48 favourable cases included 12 with cancer of the cervix and one case of lung cancer.

The machine used was a small edition of a 700-million volt machine developed by Stanford physicists for atomic research. Dr. Bagshaw said its rays could penetrate about three inches of flesh and bone, which meant it could reach just about any point in the chest or abdomen, and could do so more effectively than conventional X-rays.