MODERN SURGERY

Southland Times, Issue 25310, 13 June 1935, Page 6

MODERN SURGERY

THE TREATMENT OF CANCER. HIGH STANDARD OF ORGANIZATION. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 11. An outline of the methods being employed in Great Britain against cancer was given by Professor F. Gordon Bell, who occupies the Chair of Surgery at the University of Otago, on his return, with Mrs Bell, by the Makura from Sydney yesterday after a visit to England. Professor Bell said that the object of the trip was to study developments in surgery and advances in teaching methods. So far as cancer treatment was concerned, the organization had reached a high standard of efficiency. The main hospitals all had their cancer clinics with a special medical officer in charge. Dealing with advances in radiotherapy, Professor Bell said that several of the hospitals were trying out cheap, low-voltage X-ray apparatus for the treatment of superficial cancer cases. This form of treatment had been used in Germany with success, and might be used as a substitute when, radium was not readily available. Great interest attached to the treatment of cases of malignant disease by beam-therapy involving the use of a radium “bomb.” This “bomb” consisted of five grammes of radium, and was being experimented with in cases of cancer of the mouth and throat. During the period that beam-therapy had been under investigation it had yielded promising results, but the cases treated by it would necessarily require observation over a period of years before any final conclusion could be drawn. In several of the small hospitals smaller “bombs” of one gramme capacity were being used