THE CANCER FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 91, 15 October 1934, Page 16

THE CANCER FIGHT

AMERICAN CAMPAIGN

USE OF X-RAY'S WEAPON

ENCOURAGING RESULTS

Much research on the use of very penetrating X-rays, produced by tubes operating at 500,000 volts and upwards, is being done at tho present time, especially in tho United States, and somo encouraging clinical results aro being obtained, says the seientifie correspondent Of the "Manchester Guardian." .Very penetrating X-rays may prove particularly valuable in the treatment of internal cancer. They lose a smaller fraction of their energy in penetrating the skin and surface- layers, leaving a large part for attacking the tumour inside tho body. As a very penetrating beam is less scattered by tho intermediary tissue than a less penetrating beam, much narrower beams may bo employed, so that the same effect may be obtained with less expenditure of energy. Also the reduction of the area of the beam reduces tho exposed area of skin and volume of flesh. Onoof tho chief problems of X-ray treatment is to concentrate the maximum amount of energy 6n the tumour and exposo tho healthy flesh as little as possible. Another advantage of the high-voltage beam is that it produces much less skin inflammation than a low-voltage beam during the administration of equal doses of tho .rays. In practice it is found that four or fivo times as largo a doso can be concentrated on a deep-seated tumour by using very high-voltage X-rays. According to Lauritsen, a doso of 1500 units applied by a 700,000-volt beam produces no more inflammation thau a 400- ---■ unit dose applied by a 200,000-volt beam. ■ THE TREATMENT. ' Many must have wondered how m internal tumour can be treated with X-rays without destroying the surrounding healthy flesh of tho body. The method is very simple.in principle. A penetrating beam of X-rays is directed through the body on to the tumour for a short period of time, not long enough for the healthy flesh to be damaged. Tho beam is then scut through tho body on to the tumour from another direction for a similar short period of time. The operator arranges that the X-ray beams do not pass through the same portions bf healthy flesh twice, but always pas 3 through the tumour. ' This method requires the uso of very penetrating beams because the operator must often choose long paths through the body for the beam in order to avoid repeated uso of the short paths to the tumour. Repeated uso of the short paths might damage tho healthy tissue almost as much as the tumour. Evidently beams capable of penetrating flosh without great loss of energy are necessary for the application of this ingenious technique. High-voltage X-ray sets have boon installed at tho Memorial Hospital in New York and the Mercy Hospital in Chicago. The latter set works at about 500,000 volts, and only one patient can be treated at a time. In both sots the tubes producing the X-ray beams aro fixed so tho patient has to lie in various positions in order that the direction of the beam through his body can be changed. ALTERNATIVE METHODS. In the Kellogg Laboratory at Pasadena there is a set capable of working at 1 200,000 volts for a short period and at 700,000 volts for longer periods. The 2-rays aro produced with tho help ot a huge electron tube made of two glass cylinders each about ten feet high. A concrete treatment-room is built around the tube. The X-rays are emitted simultaneously through four ports on OiSerent sides of the tube, so that four patients can be treated whilo tho sot is working. . . In Detroit au improved form o± this apparatus has been installed. The maximum working voltage is 750,000, and it is claimed to givo as good results at 450,000 volts as some other apparatuses ■working at higher voltages. Tesla coil tube sets designed by Lawrence and Sloano have been installed in hospitals in San Francisco and New York. These consist of cylindrical tanks about four feet in diameter and four feet high containing a continuously excited Tesla coil operating in a vacuum. These sets have the unique feature of requiring no insulation material, and. the total" cost of one set is loss than £800. They produce a maximum voltage of 1,000,000. The American experiments seem to show that for tho combined qualities of reliability, first cost, upkeep, and simflicity of operation X-ray tubes eight eet long working at voltages up to 800 000 and receiving energy from a fifty-cycle transformer four feet in diameter and eight feet high and providing rays for the simultaneous treatment oi four patients are tho most promising. Where economy of first cost is of chief importance, as in many smaller hospitals, the Tesla coil set may prove to be preferable. MEDICAL ENGINEERING. The introduction of these large and powerful apparatuses is creating a new branch of medicine —medical engineering. In the future many medical students will have to take a course in electrical engineering besides such ancient sciences as anatomy and physiology. The surgeon's instruments are growing vastly bigger than the surgeon, aud the patient is being put insido the instrument instead of the instrument being put insido the patient. By enveloping the patient with electrical machinery tho necessity for opening him is being Temoved. Surgery depends on tho skilful application of power in one place, where somo unhealthy thing must be changed or removed. Tho surgeon' in ancient civilisations obtained tho concentration of power largely by the development of his own muscles. Ihe native Chinese dentists still extract teeth with their powerfully-developed finders. Then sheer muscular strength began to be replaced by the multiplication of ordinary manual strength and skill through tho uso of metallic instruments, and now there is an evolution towards the abolition of metallic instruments in favour of concentrations o. power through the manipulation of rays. The subtle ray replaces tho solid probe. The idea of the conduct of operations within the body by the manipulation of switches ou a board instead of metallic instruments insido the patient is only less beautiful than the idea of tho abolition of disease by discovering how to prevent it.