CANCER CHECKED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1170, 11 November 1913, Page 4

CANCER CHECKED.

BY THE USE OF RADIUM

A series on most remarkable improvements in advanced cancer cases treated by radium has taken place in the pisl six months in the Cancer Research wards ul the Middlesex Hospital (recently related to the medical correspondent ol the Daily Mail), In an interview one of the surgical stall' accentuated the necessity for using the word “ improvement ” instead of "cure.” “We do not main tain here that we have cured these cases by radium,’’ he said. “What we have done is to cause growths proved microscopically to be cancerous to disappear iu a truly astounding way under the radium rays.” The following brief histories oi cases were copied by permission Irom the case notebook of the hospital. In these, as in a dozen other cases of which they are typical examples, the cancerous nature of the growth has been placed beyond doubt by careful microscopical examination

1. A man, twenty-seven, from Dover. Admitted August 25 with a large sarcomatous growth (cancer) blocking up the back of the nose and throat behind the soft palate. He lost all sense of smell, could not breathe through the nose, and was deaf in the right ear through the growth obstructing the tiny air lube which connects the back of the throat with the ear. A platinum tube containing eighty-two milligrams of radium was embedded iu the tumour and left in position twelve hours. Five days later the growth had shrunk perceptibly and the sense of smell and ability to breathe through the nose were regained. On September 16, on examination with a laryngoscope, no traces of growth could be found and the patient, who had regained his complete hearing, was discharged, apparently cured. 2. This case, equally interesting, is still in the hospital. The patient is a woman of twenty-five, suffering from a large abdominal sarcoma (connective tissue cancer) extending from the top of the left thigh-bone well over to the right of the middle line of the abdomen. Twelve days ago an incision was made down to the growth and a platinum tube containing 144 milligrams of radium (all that the hospital possesses) was embedded iu the tumour and left for tvvent}four hours. Ou admission the patient weighed sst. roz. Twelve days later her weight had risen to 6st. rolb., and the tumour had shrunk to half its size on admission.

3. This case was that of a dispener at one of the special hospitals in London. Noticing a hard growth on the back of his longue, he was examined by a surgeon at one of the largest London general hospitals and was told that the growth was an epithelioma (cancer) of the tongue, and was far advanced as to be inoperable. He was admitted to the Cancer Research Wards of the Middlesex Hospital on July 21; eighty-two milligrams of radium iu a platinum tube were embedded iu the centre of the growth at the base of the tongue. Three weeks later no signs of the tongue growth could be observed, and the patient was discharged apparently cured except for the presence of two or three secondarily involved glands about the collar bone, which are to be surgically removed later if necessary.

“While we claim no cures,’’ one of the staff stated, “our recent results have teen tremendously encouraging, thanks, we are conviced, to improved technique, the result of the research work we are doing here. We are always, however, handicapped by lack of sufficient radium. We own but 144 milligrams and sometimes one patient may be using the whole of this for twenty-four hours at a stretch, which means that no one else can be having any treatment durlug this time. There are hundreds of patients wailing their turn on the list for treatment. Another reason why there is crying need for more radium is that small doses do no good.”