The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-01-27
RAD|UM IS NOT
CERTAIN CURE
FOR CANCER
Director of Pennsylvania
Clinic Says No One Knows
What the Outcome of the
Treatment VIII Be.
TELLS OF DEATH
OF HIS PATIENTS
Secretary Lane UPholds His
Plan to Prevent Monopoly
of the Metal Before House
Mines Committee.
TELLS OF DEATH
OF HIS PATIENTS

WASHINGTON. Jan. 26.-Radium
as a cure for cancer is still In an
experimental stage, and its use IN the
treatment OF internal cancer results
fatally in a large percentage OF cases.
according to the testimony before the
house mines committee today OF Dr.
William Il. Campbell, director. OF the
radium clinic oil Pennsylvanla. Dr'
Campbell told the committee that so
far az the deeper cancers are CON
cerned, ave cannot tell today what
the outcome OF the radium treatment
will be. 49,,
is a disappearance OF tumor; that the
radium causes the disiutegration or
the tissues of the cancer. but some
thing is created in that dIsaPpearance
which is absorbed by the blood ana
which kills the patient. ! cannot tell,
nohody can tell, for four or FIVE years,
lust what the result will be. -
Two Out Of Five.
"How many of your patients have
died as result OF your treatment
asked Representative Byrpes o! North
Carolina
DR., Camphell demurred at this, but
finally said that two out of i've or the
cases treated ended fatally. He added
that all such deaths were In cases
where the disease would have resulted
in death in a few months Wltnout
treatment.
"I simply feel,'' he said, Htbat
I've lust showed those patients over a
little bit quicker.
DR.. Campbell said that at the pres
ent price Of radium the cost to pa
tients ought not TO be prohibitive.
81 can treat patients at cents
per milligram of radium per hour on an
investment of $4,000 and double my
money in year. he declared
Substitute Effective.
DR.. Francis B. Donoghue of Boston
urged that the committee include IN
any legislation for protecting n,fsetns tne foT
radium.'' He said that meze-thorium,
a much cheaper product than Tadium,
was equally effective,
James G. Gray, general counsel for
the Radium Chemical company, told
the committee that Tadium treatment
had relieved him of cancer after sew.
eral Ineffective operations lie opposed
government interference with the pro-
duction of radium and urged that pri-
wave QcFcIOPEiehk Va LAW 4AaeS"'- w
encouraged.
DR.. John T. Anderson. director of the
hygienic laboratory o. the United
States public health service, declared
that the public health service was in a
position to take charge of the prodnc-
tion of radium FOR the, benefit of the
entire country
Lanes Plan.
Secretary Lane told the committee
today that congress should look up the
question, Monopoly that keeps
radium at a fabulously high price
and enact legislation to put the cura-
tive mineral on the market cheaply fo1
large numbers of sufferers.
Lane declared that it was the gov.
ernment IS duty to get all the radium il
could He combatted arguments against
the withdrawal of the lands, saying
there was no intention of setting aside
vast area, nor TO lock up the mineral
ore lands iudehnitely, but simply tc
get radium ont for public use where ii
would not be in the hands of q
monopoly.
Secretary Lanes proposal was to di
vide certain area into tracts of 36(
acres, allow exclusive licenses tc
prospectors, and il prospector found
radium to allow him all the usual rights
and the government 10 take 25 per CEN
of the radium obtained.