Evening star., 1934-04-15
Cancer arrested, Some Cured
At Carfeld's X-Ray Clinic
French Method, Vastly Improved by
u. S. Equipment, Saues 20 of 2l
Patients Kept Low.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
Supposedly incurable and rapidly
fatal cancers are being arrested-and
perhaps permanently cured in the X
ray clinic of the Garfield Memorial
Hospital.
Within the past few months, 20 out
of 81 Washington men and women
suffering from malignant neo-plasms
of the throat and larynx have been
discharged from treatment, apparent
ly cured and with very little likelihood
there will be a recurrence of the con-
dition. Only one, whose illness was
far advanced and whose case seemed
hopeless from the start, has sue
cumbed.
These cures have been made pos
sible by the installation of one of the
most complete and up-to-date roento-
logical clinics in America-with ap-
paratus undreamed of few years ago
which is now available at minimum
cost to the people of Washington and
vicinity.
A year ago diagnosis of cancer of
the throat or larynx would have
amounted to death warrant. exc
cutable within a very short time, for
every one of them.
The result has been due to a treat
ment, applied with improved tech
niqae and vastly superior mechanical
equipment, originated by DR. Coutard
of the Curie Institute of Paris, of
which the first announcement was
made by him in the United States at
the meeting of the American Medical
Association at Atlantic City in the
Summer of 1882.
At that time the announcement got
little response from the American
medical profession. Coutard actually
was saving lives at the Curie Insti
tute clinic. but the procedure seemed
highly risky and uncomfortable for
the patient.
But cancer of the larynx meant
death anvvay-except in very unusual
cases There had been few at least
partially successful surgical operations
in the past few years in which the
larynx was removed entirely and for
the rest of his life the victim-left
without means of speech-breathed
through tube.
Apparatus Made in
U. S. Improved Process.
DR.. E. A. Merritt. nationally famous
roentologist and head of the X-ray
work at Garfield Hospital, was among
those who heard Dr. Coutard describe
his treatment.
He pondered over its implications.
Much of the difficulty was due to the
fact that the French doctor was work
ing with inadequate apparatus. The
mechnical advances made in X-ray
apparatus in the United States during
the last few years. it was seen. would
obviate many of the difficulties.
That is the basis of the extraordi-
nary success achieved at the Garfield
finest and most effective array Of
X-ray apparatus in the world. The
heavy artillery of the offensive con-
sists of two 220, ,000-volt deep-therapy
machines. The higher the voltage,
generally speaking, the more Of the
extremely short-wave length rays are
produced which will actually get into
the body. With this same machine
the volume that could be delivered in
any given spot-comparable to the
amount of shrapnel actually landed
by battery-could be increased six
fold
nf ao,oI {y,,portoooa uo. 49, a61...
age" There are all sorts of X-rays
They range from billionth to a ten
billionth of millimeter in length.
The long ones are known as soft rays.
They enter only the superficial layers
of the skin. So far as effecting an
internal cancer is concerned they are
worthless. All they do is needlessly
TO destroy skin tissue.
The new machines shut them all
out. Only the hard, short, deep pene-
trating rays are used Thus a good
deal of the superficial tissue destruc-
ton is avoided. The doctors need fire
only hits"
Treatment Lacks Color
New One Would Have.
Radiation treatment Of cancer Is old.
II somebody announced a new way
OF curing cancer of the throat and
larynx the announcement would con-
stitute one of the medical sensations
OF the age. The Garfield clinic s
achievement lies in vastly extending
the efficacy of an old way-which
takes some of the color out of it.
But it gets results-even roughly
practicable results. Similar apparatus
now is being installed in other cities
whose physicians have heard of the
achievements here. Anything which
the X-ray can do now can be done
here. The impressive deep therapy
machines are only part. of the com
plete neurological equipment of the
hospital.
For years physicians have been
preaching the one safeguard against
cancer-early diagnosis and removal
OF any abnormal body growth or dis
coloratlon. They have preached it so
much that the subject has become a
trlf1e wearisome to the general pub
lie because for the man or woman re-
strained by the busy routine of life
and not given to hypochondriacal con-
Germ over minor ailments it was not
very practical.
The Garfield clinic has made it
practical, and reasonably cheap.
Treatment is given for what a patient
is able to pay-for nothing if one is
not able to pay anything. The hos
pital wants to reach the general pub
lie with what is perhaps the greatest
cancer preventative as well as cancer
cure in the world today.
II the potentialities of the ma
chine are taken advantage of to the
utmost, there should be a great de-
crease in the incidence of the dreaded
neo-plasms throughout this area. In