CANCER AND RADIUM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 34, 9 February 1935, Page 26

CANCER AND RADIUM

BRITISH EXPERIENCE

The preliminary-report on radium treataient in. cancer .-of certain; sites, published by the National " Radium Commission, gives some extremely interesting: figures, writes, the , ; medical correspondent of the "Daily:, Telegraph." '_:. . , . ■■■■■.-•'.. ."-,■.'■■ ;-~ They''relate.' primarily to. the three types- of -cancer in which the results of radium,- by general consent, have hitherto found; the most' promising, namely, .cancer" of! the "breast, the womb,,and'the tongue and the niouth. Although the Commission has,:rightly, decided that.no reasonable estimate of the permanent . value of radium treatment "ought to be made: until enough cases.have,been.accurately observed.: for:.five! years, .the present p^ef liminary. report ;d?als with: considerable'groups" observed for three; years.l' A group 0f:557 cases' of cancer "Of the breast was divided into three groups according to the severity arid distribution of the. cancer. These were treated either by radium alpne or. by radium in conjunction with surgical removal and deep X-ray therapy. . Of the cases in. /which, the jbreast alone.was involved- there .was'a'©*'.percent.- . survival rate ■ at;tlie, end' of three; years, in those r with secondary ■ gland infection a 39; per .cent.' survival rate, and;.in .those with, invasion of neighbouring structures a,24' per cent, survival rate. . Of cases of cancer of the neck or entrance, of the womb,'out of a group of 590 cases in all stages treated by radium, there was;a JSO per cent., survival rate at the end of three years in the less-advanced .cases,, and a> 39 per cent, survival rate for all cases, as compared with a 10 per cent, survival rate for untreated of this site. Out of a group of .322 cases of cancer of the tongue there was a survival rate of 40' per cent, at the end of three years in the earlier cases,.and including . the more advanced cases a total survival rate of 19 per cent.