The Radium Treatment of Cancer

Prelude to specialization: US cancer nursing, 1920–50

“…The medical community considered concealing the diagnosis to be humane, to foster a necessary sense of hope, and to facilitate their patients’ treatment compliance. Nurses were told that the ‘mental anxiety and anguish of cancer is worse than physical pain’ (Cutler 1934). Additionally, secrecy also protected doctors from the pain of giving this bad news and being exposed to their patients’ reactions (Cockerill 1948).…”

“…However, the care these patients required appears inconsistent with nurses keeping their distance. At the Chicago Tumor Institute in the 1930s, complete blood counts of those in any way connected with handling radium were assessed (Cutler 1934). By the 1930s at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, film badges were placed in areas where staff worked with radiation.…”

“…Large quantities of radium could be suspended above the patient in a radium pack or ‘bomb’, which had an opening to allow the rays to emerge at a specific place. There were just 12 radium bombs in the world in 1934, seven of which were in the US (Cutler 1934).…”

“…Radon, a dense, inert gas derived from radium, was collected in capillary tubes of gold or platinum. 2 Sometimes these capillaries were divided into 1 / 8 ‐inch lengths, forming ‘radon seeds’ (Cutler 1934). Both X‐rays and radium were expensive, radium prohibitively so.…”

“…At Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital, a specially trained graduate nurse was custodian of the radium. She kept the keys to the hospital's store of radium and was responsible for its use (Cutler 1934).…”