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Radium Therapy

the use radium for the cure of disease. It is .

It is still in the experimental stage, but sufficient success has already been gained to indicate that it may prove of great value in connection with certain malignant growths. The rays are applied by various methods: in some cases a tiny emanator tube is buried in the growth, in others the emanation is condensed in vaseline, oil, glycerine, or water and applied externally; or, again, the rays are condensed on arsenic, bismuth or quinine and taken internally. Another method of external application is to coat linen, or copper plates with a varnish containing radioactive salts, these being plied to the affected parts, the surrounding flesh protected with lead foil. It is sometimes found that treatment with the rays will produce temporary improvement, but that complete cure the case with ep does not take place. This is particularly epitheliomas of the mouth and pharynx and laryngeal mucous membranes. Considerable success has been obtained in treating cancer of the uterus.

After prolonged treatment amounting to as much as 60 hours spread over a period of five to ten days, there has followed a decrease in pain, the arrest of hemor- RADIX rhage and discharge, and a healing of ulcerations. Similar success has attended treatment of carcinoma of the rectum, and cancer of the breast. In some instances of the latter, there has been apparently complete cure, and in the case of rodent ulcer apparent cure has resulted from a single treatment .

In a report made by the Radium Institute of London (1917) it is stated that of 169 cases of rodent ulcer, 122 were cured and 37 were improved.

Favorable results are also reported in the treatment of lympho sarcoma, in many cases the growth steadily shrinking and finally disappearing completely, while some success has been obtained with fibroid disease of the uterus, lupus vulgarus and pruritis arthritis. A method of treatment developed in the United States has given good goo results in the treatment of cancer of the bladder and prostate. A gold needle, four to six inches long, containing radium in the point, is thrust into the center of the growth, and left there for some hours, local anæsthetics being used to deaden the pain of application. In nearly all cases after such applications there is a period of reaction which may last several months. Birthmarks and scars have been beneficially treated by radium emanations. It must, however, be emphasized that in spite of much real or apparent success, radium therapy is in its early stages and there is a general agreement that the only reliable treatment for malignant growths is removal by operation, and that treatment by radium should only be resorted to in those cases where surgical operation is impossible or inadvisable.