New-York tribune., 1920-08-07
Hospital Seeks
2 Million Fund
To Cure Cancer
Post Graduate Institution
to Buy $4,000 Worth
of Radium, To Be Used
in Its Research Work
Clinic Opened to Press
Permanent Relief Has Been
Achieved in Many Cases;
Other Diseases Treated


Evidence that permanent relief can
be brought to superficial cases of can
GER through the use Of radium was
offered yesterday by DR.. George Stuart
Willis, in charge of the radium clinic
at the New York Post Graduate Medi-
cal School and Hospital, Twentieth
Street and Second Avenue.
The Post Graduate, whose labora-
tories for research and chemical dag
nosis are considered second only to
those Of the Rockefeller Institute, de-
spite the fact that the institution de-
rives only $4,000 a year from cndow-
ment, is conducting S2,OOO,O00
endowment fund campaign. On the
success of this drive depends in a
large measure the future of the radium
research work being carried on there.
To Buy $4,000 Worth
The hospital is already specializing
in the treatment of cancer with the
radium needle, and with increased
funds, a part of which is proposed
to be spent in the purchase of one
gram of radium valued at $4,000, it
is hoped that the work can be carried
on until permanent cures have been
effected in even advanced cases.
In the proposed expansion of it's
fight against cancer the Post Graduate
is organizing Radium Research
Board, which has already begun nego-
tiations for the purchase of the gram
of radium. According to scientists
the life of the gram of radium is prac-
tically unlimited
The Endowment Committee of the
Post Graduate, of which DR.. James F
McKernon is the chairman, is deeply
interested in the radium research
work and particularly in the applica-
ton of this mysterious element in
the treatment Of cancer and other
malignant diseases. The remarkab Bile
progress made thus far by the Post
Graduate radium clinic, even though
1t has been hampered considerably by
limited resources, has encouraged the
medical members of the Endowment
Committee to believe that the discov-
cry Of permanent cure for cancer is
not great way off. Permanent re-
lief has already been achieved, the
POSTGRADUATE specialists say, and the
permanent cure is looked upon as the
next step.
Open Clinic to Press
In order to let the public know what
is being accomplished through the use
of radium in the treatment of cancer
and other diseases akin to it, the Post
Graduate Hospital yesterday opened its
regular weekly radium clinic to mem
bers of the press.
but review yesterday Of twenty pa
tlents having various degrees of can
cerous growths seemed to prove that
the radium treatment has succeed ed
and brought relief where surgical oper-
atlons have failed, or merely DELAYED
temporarily the return of the deadly
disease.
Twenty-eight physicians and nurses
attended yesterdays session of the
radium clinic and after viewing pa
tients undergoing treatment and hear
ing DR.. Willis's lecture, they were per
mitted to ask questions and had ex-
planned to them the use of the radium
needle.
Several cases reviewed by the clinic
yesterday were ones in which relief
had been achieved where it seemed
completely hopeless, and where the
science of the surgeons knife had been
exhausted
Most of the patients enjoying the
benefits of the. Post Graduates radium
research work are persons of small
means.
DR.. Willis emphasized the statement
that the limited knowledge of the pow
ers of radium is due to the fact that
few hospitals have been able to obtain
the precious stuff for purposes of ex
Fermentation and, as result, the
progress toward a standardized meth Cd
of treatment has been slow. He said
that the treatment by radium of the
cancerous growth itself was one phase
of the work being studied and another
was the application of radum to the
surfaces after the growth had been
removed.
Helps Tubercular Glands
Among the cases reviewed by the
clinic yesterday We're several in which
radium had been successfully used in
the treatment Of tubercular glands, one
being that of young girl who had suf-
fered from this affliction for years as
a result of severe burns about the
throat and shoulders and subsequent
skiing grating
Another interesting case was that of
South American whose power of
speech, lost through cancerous
growth in the throat and at the base of
the tongue, had been restored. Ra-
dlum was shown also to have brought
permanent relief to a woman who de-
clared she had not been able to breathe
through her nose for twenty years be-
cause of malignant growth