CANCER AND RADIUM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1897, 4 November 1913, Page 7

CANCER AND RADIUM.

EXPERIMENTS AT A LONDON HOSPITAL. A series of most remarkable improvemonts in advanced cancer cases treated by radium lias taken place in the paßt six months in tho Cancer Research wards of the Middlesex Hospital ('recently related' tho medical correspondent of i7) D "Daily Mail")'. In an interview one of the surgical stall' accentuated tho necessity for using the word "impraveineiit" instead of "euro.'' "Wo. do not maintain, hero that Wo have cured these cases by_ radium," ho said. "What wo have done is to cause growths provod microscopically to bo cancerous to disappear in a truly astounding way under tho radium rays." The following brief histories of oases were copied by permission from tho caso notebook of ilia hospital. 11l these, as in a dozen other cases of which tlioy aro typical examples, tho coiicei'ouß nature of the growth has been plated beyond doubt by careful microscopical examination: — 1. A man, twejity-sovoii, from Dover* Admitted August-25 with a large ■sarco> matous growth (cancer) blocking un tho back of tho lioso and throat behind tlio soft palate. Ho lost al! sense of smell, could not breathe through the nose, and was deaf in the right oar through the growth obstructing the tiny air tube which connects the back of tho throat with the ear. A platinum tubo containing eighty-two milligrams of radium was embedded in tho tumour and left in position twelve hours. Fivo days later tho growth had shrunk perceptibly ' and the sens© of smell aiid ability to brea®3 through the nose wore regained. Oil September 1(3, on examination with a laryngoseopo, no traces of growth could bo found and the patient, who had regained his complete.hearing, was discharged, apparently cured. 2. Tlhb ease, cfjually interesting; is still in tho hospital. The patient is a woman, of twfcnty-fivo, suffering from a large abdominal sarcoma (connective tissue cancer) extending from. tho top of tlio left thigh-bone- well over to tlio right of tlie middle line of tho abdomen. Twelve days ago an incision was inado down to il.io growth and a platinum tubo containing 144 milligrams of radium (all that the hospital possesses) \va3 embedded in the tumour and left for twenty-foiir hours. On admission the patient'weighed fist. toz. Twelve days later her weight had risen to 6st, 1.01b., and tlio tumour had shrunk to half its size on admission. 3. This caso was that of a dispenser at olio'of-the special hospitals in London. Noticing a hard growth on the hack of his tongue ho was examined by a surgeon at one of the largest Loudon general hospitals and w;js told that the growth was an epithelioma (cancer) of the tongue, and was so far advanced as to ho inoperable. Ho was admitted to tlio, Cancer licscarch Wards of theMiddlesex Hospital Oil July 21; eightytwo milligrams of radium in a plstinuaj tuba were imbedded in the eentro of the growth at the base of the tongue. Three Weeks later no signs of tlio tongue growth could bo observed, and tlie patient was discharged apparently cured oxcept'for the presence of two or thren secondarily involved glands nbout the collar-bone, which aro to bo surgically removed later if necessary. "While wo .claim no cures," bnd of tho staff stated, "our recent results have been tremendously encouraging, thanks, wo arc convinced, 'to improved technique, the result of the research work Vs'o aro doing bore. Wc aro always., however., handicapped by lack of sufficient radium. Wo own but 144 milligrams, and Sometimes one patient may bo using tho whole of' this .for • twentyfour hours at a stretch, which means tliat 110 ono else can be having any treatment during this time. . There arehundreds of patients waiting their turn on the list for treatment. Another reason why there is cryhig need for mora radium is that small, doses <3o no good. *