The Palliative Treatment of Inoperable Carcinoma of the Cervix by Means of Radium

The various palliative treatments formerly employed in cases of inoperable carcinoma of the cervix have proved so unsatisfactory that any improvement should be hailed with joy by the profession. Reports of the success of radium treatment, therefore, deserve attention and investigation, since these reports have appeared in the last few years with such frequency that the method may now be considered firmly established. The technique and application, the range of usefulness, the permanency of the relief, the histological changes taking place, and the process by which the rays produce their effects are, however, questions which are still unsettled; and the purpose of this article is to contribute to the various phases of the subject not yet cleared up, and to put on record sundry interesting observations made during the treatment of a small but varied series of cases. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be unwise to report such a series of cases at so early a stage of treatment; but as no claim is made that permanent results have been obtained, it has been thought permissible to describe the early palliative effects, without attempting to predict whether the improvement is more than temporary. The writer has treated twelve cases of carcinoma of the cervix in the gynecological wards of Mt. Sinai Hospital, eleven on the service of Dr. Joseph Brettauer,'and one on that of Dr. H. N.