Abstract
THE Medical Research Council has issued under the above title a summary of reports from research centres for 1931 on the radium treatment of cancer (Special Report Series, No. 174. London: H.M. Stationery Office. 1s. 3d. net). The main lines of radium therapy employed at present are described, and the results of the treatment of cancer of certain organs—tongue and mouth, breast, uterus, rectum, and others—are detailed. While the immediate results of the treatment are generally beneficial, the ultimate results are disappointing, few cases surviving after three or four years. But it must be remembered that most of the cases are advanced ones and inoperable. For these almost the only hope lies in radium therapy, and occasionally a striking result is obtained. Various methods of applying radium are being tested at the various centres, and we may hope in the future that improved methods will yield better results. A statistical analysis of all the cases treated at the Middlesex Hospital since 1925 is given in an appendix.
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Medical Uses of Radium. Nature 130, 772 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130772a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130772a0