Some Complicating Factors in the Radium Treatment of Carcinoma of the Cervix Uteri

Abstract

The treatment of carcinoma of the cervix by radium can no longer be regarded as new therapy. On the contrary it has been practised for a sufficient number of years to permit of the publication from many centres of the results of treatment of large numbers of cases, and their follow-up for many years afterwards.In the early days of this therapy the method of treatment, the dosage and the duration of the application were largely experimental and had to be determined to a certain extent by methods of trial and error. In this connection we owe much to the pioneer work of KELLY and BURKAM in America, LACASSAGNK and WJCKHAM in France and FORS-SELL and HEYMAN in Sweden; and it is HEYMAN whose work we are so glad to acknowledge and to appreciate in this publication.In general it may be said that the earlier methods of therapy consisted in the insertion of a varying number of radium-charged needles of dif fering strength into the substance of the tumour and these methods were reviewed by the writer in 1929 (1). A certain degree of success Was ob tained by multiple radium needle puncture, but the undesirable feature of this method was traumatisation of the growth which was unavoidable. The essential feature of the FORSSELL-HEYMAN technique, however, lay in the avoidance of such traumatisation of the growth. Into the in terior of the uterus, in cases in which the cervical canal can be found,