Alpha radiation treats prostate cancers

[dipsydoodle]

A trial of a new cancer drug, which accurately targets tumours, has been so successful it has been stopped early.

Doctors at London's Royal Marsden Hospital gave prostate cancer patients a powerful alpha radiation drug and found that they lived longer, and experienced less pain and side effects.

The medics then stopped the trial of 922 people, saying it was unethical not to offer all of them the treatment.

Lead researcher Dr Chris Parker said it was "a significant step forward".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15039216

[DemVoter2012]

1. Technology...

Wow. That's really interesting. I wonder if it will be useful for other forms of cancer too.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. How ironic ... radium was once the basis of all kinds of quack medicine ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor



http://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/radium.htm


The Great Radium Scandal; August 1993; Scientific American Magazine; by Roger M. Macklis; 6 Page(s)

Eben M. Byers died early on the morning of Thursday, March 31, 1932, the victim of a mysterious syndrome that for 18 months had ravaged his body, corroding his skeletal system until one by one his bones started to splinter and break. Byers had been a powerful man, a broad-chested athlete and sportsman who was an expert trapshooter and had been the U.S. Amateur Golf Champion in 1907 at the age of 27. As chairman of the A. M. Byers Iron Foundry, he had personified the Roaring Twenties, a millionaire socialite and tycoon who had clambered into the upper reaches of New York society. He continued to lead a life of privilege even after the stock market crash, maintaining homes in Pittsburgh, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina, as well as horse-racing stables in New York and England.

When Byers died, his shriveled body must have been barely recognizable to friends who had known him as a robust athlete and ladies' man. He weighed just 92 pounds. His face, once youthful and raffishly handsome, set off by dark, pomaded hair and deep-set eyes, had been disfigured by a series of last-ditch operations that had removed most of his jaw and part of his skull in a vain attempt to stop the destruction of bone. His marrow and kidneys had failed, giving his skin a sallow, ghastly cast. Although a brain abscess had left him nearly mute, he remained lucid almost to the end. He died at 7:30 A.M. at Doctors' Hospital in New York City.

http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=7BF8F182-2D4D-40D1-A59A-2A0FFDB401F


Eben Byers is interred in a leadlined
coffin in the Byer Mausoleum,
Section 13, Lot 67. Several years
ago his body was exhumed temporarily
by the Federal government for
radioactive testing.

http://www.alleghenycemetery.com/images/newsletter/newsletter_XIII_1.pdf

This is a 'radioautograph' of Byers' body -- he was placed on top of a sheet of X-ray film for several minutes. When the film was developed, the areas exposed to radiation reveal the areas of his body containing the greatest concentrations of radium.



And let's not forget that Marie Curie suffered from the results of radium exposure ...


































The difference between then and now? Ra-223 is a very short-lived isotope, so after it is done killing the cancer, it vanishes quickly -- most natural radium is Ra-226 or 228, with much longer half lives, which remains in bone and keeps radiating the patient for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_radium

Oh, and there's that notion of a controlled dose -- very important. Details count.