Evening star., 1953-10-09
Radioactive Needles
Work Inside Tumor
Not Necessary to Remove
As Tissues Absorb Them
By Thomas R. Henry

Radioactive needles which can be
placed deep in the body and eventually
be absorbed by tissue without any
necessity of removing them have been
prepared by Navy doctors.
They are especially designed to place
radioactive phosphorus inside tumor
where it's radiations will not damage
healthy surrounding cells, according to
a report by Comdr. H. C. Dudley of the
United States Naval Hospital in St.
Adams, N Y.
He emphasized that the findings are
the result of studies on experimental
animals, and that the technique has not
been tried clinically with any human
patient.
Slowly Eliminated by Body.
The needles are made by melting a
mixture of germanium dioxide and
titanium phosphate at high tempera-
ture. The compound is non-poisonous
and is slowly dissolved and eliminated
by the body. The titanium phosphate
can be made from radioactive phos-
phoruS, lasts ID days which is about the
right length of time for treatment, and
is safe to use with minimum of shield
ing for the persons handling it, Comdr.
Dudley said.
The glaSs-like needles are less than
four -hundredthS of an inch in diameter.
The chief problem connected with
the clinical use of radioactive phoS-
phoruS has been the tendency of the
phosphorus compounds themselves to
dissolve into the body or work their
way into the blood plasma, Comdr.
Dudley said. Earlier forms of the
needles, using radioactive gold, had
the disadvantage Of giving off danger
GUS gamma rays, which were danger
Gus to the hands of the eXperimenters
and tended to irradiate the whole body
of the experimental animal
The present needles, he pointed out,
can be used to study the functions of
specific areas of the brain through the
destruction of small bits of tissue, or
they can be used in place of radium
or radioactive cobalt in studies of some
kinds of malignant tissues.
AntibiOtics and Plant Disease.
Antibiotics, which have proved so
effective in combating human and
animal infections during the past few
years, now are being used against plant
diseases.
Drs. w. j. Zaumeyer, H. Rex Thomas
and j. r. Mitchell of the Department
of Agriculture Plant Industry station
at Beltsville, Md, have just reported
to the American Chemical Society sue
cessful use of streptomycin, most po-
tent of the antibiotics against the tu-
berculosis germ in humans. to protect
beans against the disease known as halo
blight.
This was the first report of the use
of one of these substances to control
a plant disease. The implications for
agriculture may be very great although
halo blight itself is not a malady of
any great economic Importance.
Minute amounts of streptomycin were
applied to the stems of beans in the
greenhouse just before they were in
noculated with the bacteria responsible
for the disease. This was absorbed by
the stems and carried upward into the
leaves in sufficient amounts to give
complete protection.
Later plants were sprayed with a
streptomycin preparation in the field.
Results were nearly as good as in the
greenhouse, although three or four
sprayingS were necessary to give COM
plete protection. About 90 per cent OF
unsprayed plants in the same field de-
veloped the malady.
The great weakness of streptomycin
in the treatment of tuberculosis is the
fact that the tubercle bacilli tend to
develop immune types through heredi-
tary mutations after few treatments.
The bacteria responsible for halo
blight and for another plant disease
are showing some evidence of under
going the same sort of mutations.
The antibiotic is applied in the form
of liquid spray with an extremely low
concentration. 1t also, the Department
Of Agriculture scientists said, probably
will be possible to apply it in the form