CANCER TREATMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1929, Page 7

CANCER TREATMENT

THE CASE. FOE RADIUM. AN AUTHORITATIVE E R ON U't N CEMENT. LONDON, November 15. The most authoritative pronouncement. yet made on the sub.ect of radium in i ls relation to cancer appears in a report just issued by the Radium commission. Oi su n national importance is the subject (the report states) that in March of this year the Radium SubCommiu.ee of the Committee of Civil ivesea rch issued a report which led to Uie creation of the National Radium Fund, which now amounts to nearly £3(XJ,O.>3 of which £IOO,OOO was contributed by the Government. Subsequently two bod.es were founded to ueal with tins problem—namely, the National Radium Trust and the Radium Commission. As a result a largely increased supply of- radium will be forth-coming for the use of the medical profession in its campaign against cancer. The Commission strongly deprecates such extravagant claims as were attributed to a member of the medical profession, addressing a recent meeting of an English medical society, to the effect that on a five-year average they jiad cures by radium in 60 per cent, of operable cases of cancer, 37 per cent, in border-line cases, and 28 per cent, in inoperable. In the opinion of the Commission figures such as these can only be described as cruelly misleading. KNOWN • FACTS. The facts of the position, as known to ttie Commission, may be summarised as follows: it has been proved for many years that radium has a wonderful effect on various affections of the skin,- and that rodent ulcer and cancer of the skin can usually he completely cured by its use. During the past few years the technique of radium therapy has been elaborated and greatly improved by the use of radium therapy has been elaborated and greatly improved by the use of radium needles, or of “seeds” containing radium emanation (radon), which are buried in the tissue in or around the growth. Most of the work done in this country, so far, has been directed towards the treatment of cancer of the womb, the lower bowel, the breast, and the tongue and mouth cavity. It can .be stated definietly that in the abovementioned regions, as the result of long and hard work, of many trials and many errors, a beg step forward has been made. Encouraging as are the results already obtained, it must not be assumed that radium can cure all cancers, for this is not yet the ease, and many problems remain to be solved. The attack on the primary growth is, in a sense, the easiest past of the task, for if the growth is accessible and radio-sensitive; if the radium is implanted in the right place; if the whole of the tumour is irradiated; if the dose is correct and if the exposure is rightly timed; then one may expect the shrinkage and disappearance of the tumour. Radium therapy, however, if it is to be successful must aim at destroying not only the primary growth, but also any extension which may have formed in the neighbouring glands. In the course of the work one point that has come out quite clearly is that destruction of a primary growth, following by its complete disappearance, does not generally affect the development of secondary growths, if these are already formed, any more than excision of a cancer of the breast by the knife will cure a patient if there are secondary deposits in the interior organs.

EARLY TREATMENT. We must again emphasise the fact tnat treatment of cancer, if it is to be successful, whether it takes the form of surgical excision, the cautery, radium, or X-rays, must be undertaken marly, or before ‘dissemination has occurred; and it must be reiterated that an essential part of the campaign against cancer consists in the education and intelligent co-operation of the public, so that early diagnosis and prompt treatment may be secured. LITTLE DISCOMORT TO PATIENT. One great point in favour of radium is that its use does not involve the risks and suffering associated with extensive and mutilating operations, whicn are so distressing t-o all concerned. The operation of introducing the radium is in itself a comparatively slight one, and while the radium is in position the patient .suffers little, if any discomfort. Under these conditions, and with good prospects of cure without mutilation patients should be far more ready to consult their doctors, instead of concealing or disregarding their svmptons till it is too late for any form of effective treatment. There is no proof whatever that cancer is either infections of contagious. i'nerc is no evidence that cancer Is hereditary, except in one rare form of cancer of the eye. These fears, therefore, can both he dismissed.

CLOSE CO-OPERATION. T () , sum up, a. good case has been made out for the increased employment of radium. A new weapon, and a powerful one, has been placed in the hands of the medical profession, though how effective it may he it is impossible as yet to say.

Nor is it yet established whether patients with malignant disease should be treated with radium alone, or witli radium combined with surgery or Xrays. It is probable that a judicious use of all three methods may be required; but in any case clinicians must lie familiar with them all. What is required at the. moment is work, intensive work, on the many problems which present themselves, combined with careful documentation of the methods used and registration of the results obtained. This calls for the close co-operation of physicists, clinicians, radiologists, and pathologists. Some brilliant work has already been done, but much more requires to he accomplished before the efficacy of radium can bo finally established.