Radium and Cancer

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 284, 27 August 1930, Page 13

Radium and Cancer

Sir,'—The form in which my remarks en the Question of radium in the cure of cancer appeared in yesterday’s issue might be calculated to give a false impression, and I should value the opportunity to emphasise the other side of the picture, by stressing the following points: 1. Radium and surgery properly used have established themselves as agents which are capable of actually curing a large per cent, of cancers if the remedies are applied sufficiently early. This can only be done by the uSe of thorough and modern methods. 2. One of the mpst common forms of cancer peculiar to women, namely, cancer of the uterus, is particularly amenable to cure.

3. The public must be urged to consult medical men at an earlier stage, and the profession must be trained to recognise the possible seriousness of symptoms apparently slight. At the same time there pre many insidious growths which produce no symptoms and are not capable of diagnosis either by routine annual examination or any other form of examination until they are incurable. ... 5. Like all remedies, radium has been consciously and unconsciously open to abuse, and the widespread use of insufficient doses, or of improper forms of application, is a serious menace to the confidence of the profession and the public in its efficacy. . ' 6. The establishment of post-graduate centres in touch with the ibest methods of using radium is just as essential as an increased supply of material, and the additional supplies of the remedy should go hand in hand' with the training of" more men in ita nroner use. 7. Only those who have at their-peP' sonal disposal equal skill in the use of surgery and radium are capable of judging whether either remedy should be used alone or in combination in a given case. 8. Radium used in insufficient doses or by bad methods may convert an otherwise curable condition into an incurable one,

9. Training of the largest possible number of men in surgery and radium, and the restriction of the handling of eases to those so qualified is just as important as the securing of more and more radium. 10. In planning a cancer campaign, radium and surgery, the only two cures known at present, should be exploited to the uttermost, but in suph a way as to give to the public the maximum advantages of each. In the interview which was published I■ am afraid the abuses of radium and surgery were so stressed as possibly to hide the wonderful efficacy of, the remedies if properly used.—l am, etc., fc. CAMPBELL BEGG. Wellington, August 26.