The Waikato Times With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1929. THE RADIUM CURE.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17621, 28 January 1929, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1929. THE RADIUM CURE.

The suicide of two London doctors, the twin brothers Arthur and Sidney Smith, has Intensified the interest in radium as a cure for cancer. These young men were distressed and overw r rought because of the difficulty of obtaining sufficient supplies of the rare and costly element. Since their tragic death British doctors and newspapers have urged that the possible sources of radium in Australia should be fully investigated, but experts have thrown doubt on the possibility of getting supplies from there .except at a prohibitive cost. The present cost ia tremendous enough. A gramme (the weight of three ordinary aspirin tablets) is worth. £12,000. The supplies are now drawn almost entirely from the Belgian Congo. No new sources are in sight, and meantime the demand grows constantly. The value of the radium treatment is so. well established and the need for larger supplies is so urgent that it is hardlysurprising to find young doctors driven to suicide through brooding on the subject.

However, the danger of radium must not be forgotten in the enthusiasm for its inestimable value as a cure. It is a two-edged sword. A radiologist, writing in the Sunday Times (London) recently said he felt it necessary to give a grave word of warning: s.cars of work are necessary to become an adept in its use. Because a surgeon has learned to use radium with skill and success, say in cancer of the tongue, it does not follow that he is qualified to use radium in other ways, as for cancer of the breast. Nor do the highest surgical qualifications lit a man to use radium without previous experience. Radium is too dangerous a substance to distribute broadcast. There are some hospitals which have acquired radium, either by gift or otherwise, where there is not a single member of the staff with the least idea of its proper use. Radium wrongly used can do great harm. One dose —the right one —tends to destroy and kill the malignant cell. Too, great a dose will burn the patient. Too weak a dose may actually stimulate the cancer to more rapid growth. The latest methods of treatment mark' an important advance on earlier practice. Long needles made of platinum and containing small quantities of radium salt are now used to attack cancerous growths. In this connection it is important to remember that highly skilled physicists arc necessary to handle the radium —to pack it in the needles and to measure the strength. That is a factor that people arc apt to overlook. The latest development is the use of radon ‘seed,’ a minute tube of gold or platinum into which is placed a hollow glass tube—little thicker than a hair—containing the active emanation or gas given off by radium in solution. With a special introducer these ‘seeds’ are buried in the body round the growth. Once more I would sLress the need for great caution in the distribution and the use of radium. Let us have all the radium that generously disposed people will provide. But let us see to it that radium is placed in the hands only of those who have proved their ability to use it properly.’-’

From this warning we revert naturally io the high value of the treatment and the call for its wider use, Many people In Britain are urging that this cure should not be a privilege within reach of the wealthy oDly; efforts are being made to keep the general hospitals (supported by charity) and the Poor Law institutions supplied. Tne London Daily Telegraph says the problem is 100 vast and the urgency 100 grave for independent schemes:’ “What wo need is a national effort and a national plan. Every milligramme of radium which public liberality can provide can be made instantly and, in the precise sense, infinitely useful. But just as to obtain a full response from the public appeal must be made by national authority, so to obtain the most beneficial use of the stock of radium available it must be distributed in accordance with a comprehensive national scheme.”