THE USE OF RADIUM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 76, 20 March 1914, Page 4

THE USE OF RADIUM.

Though much has been effected "in the cure of certain tonus of cancer by the use of radium the "Lancet" has found it necessary, on behalf of the medical profession, to sound a word of warning. "The crucial question is," it says, "how many cases of undoubted and inoperable malignant disease have been completely relieved by radium treatment, and have remained apparently cured sufficiently long forgive reasonable hopes of permanent relief?. The number must be small, we think, and the permanent relief probably only occurs when the circumstances are unusually favorable. Up to the present radium has brought us little, if any, nearer to the discovery of a definite cure for malignant disease. At the same time we are glad to be able to record considerable advances in practical radium therapy. With larger supplies of radium, and greater experience in applying it where it can do the most good, an increasing number of cases are being relieved and remaining well for a longer time. Far more\ progress would have been made if all malignant, growths of any given variety reacted to radium in a similar manner. But cases apparently alike may give opposite results in the same treatment, and though this may be overcome by improved technique, the difficulty is a serious one." The "Lancet" concludes that far more clinical records are required before anything is said' in public.