Newspapers / The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, … / May 11, 1953, edition 1 / Page 26
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X-Ray Beam Has Shape Of A Pole By Howard W. Blakeslee The University of Illinois College of Medicine for at least a year has hren using a beam of x-rays in the shape of a pole. This is something new in beams | of any kind. Other beams are fan- j shaped. This beam is used to treat cancer and comes from a betatron, a new high-energy electrical ma-1 chine producing 25.million volt x-rays. The rays are invisible, but pho- \ tographic film reveals their pe culiar formation. The betatron is a box, higher than your head, sheathed in metal.1 Shoulder high on the betatron face is a round hole, big as your wrist, none of the inner works visible. A yard in front of the hole Dr. John S. I.aughlin sets up a target, a'sheet of photographic film. When the film is developed it show, a round black disc, the same size as the hole in the betatron's face. The edges of the black spot are shaped as if cut by a knife. The x-rays went through bunched, as rigid as if they had the form of a long, round pole. Thit betatron beam reaches a cancer with the accuracy of a sur geon's knife. The r^ys drive so hard that they pass through skin and surface tissues without causing much damage, As they hit the tissues the rays produce electrons, hut these too travel so hard and so fast that they cause little surface damage. The greatest burning effect is deep below the skin. This makes the pole-shaped beam a new cancer tool. Aiming this invisible beam is difficult. The target is an unseen place inside the body. The bullets are invisible. Only the patient can be in the room when the betatron fires. Models of the cancer patient have to be made for aiming. To <Jatp marksmanship has been only on heads and necks. The model heads are exact reproductions of the patient's lines ? and contours, perfect enough to be prize-winning sculptures. The model is set in the position the patient will occupy, and surveying fixes this position down to the smallest fraction of an inch. Phantom heads are made of scores of thin layers. Between each layer is a sheet of photogra phic film. The beam is shot into this phantom, and the film records the x-ray strength and damage at every depth. The patient sits or lies in the | measured position. He feels no' pain, in fact he doesn't feel the ray ! at all. But he cannot wear a collar button. He must not wear his glasses. Because either metal might become radioactive. Occasionally when these 25-mil lion volt rays strike something they are captured somewhat like a bil lard ball in a corner pocket. In this capture they often transmute the atoms they strike. This is the same transmutation as done in atomic piles, and creates the same kinds of 'radioactivity. Because of this the walls o^ thp ^ betatron room are covered with ma terials that do not transmute read-: ily. This induced radioactivity is i no risk to the patient, but could interfere with the accuracy in the j instruments. Dr. Roger A. Harvey, radiolo gist in charge of treatment, refuses predictions. Four persons have been treated. The first, was at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where Dr. Donald W. Kerst, inven tor of the betatron, has several of these machines. There a 22-million ; volt beam was focused on a deep brain cancer upon which conven-j tional x-ray surgery had failed. The ! patient died of another cause be fore the-treatment was completed, but an autopsy showed -the cancer ous tissue almost completely de stroyed. without apparent damage to surrounding tissues. When drama was first televised in 1928 by WGY, an experimental station in Schenectady, N. Y-, only j the heads of the actors showed on the screen because of the limita tions of the TV medium at that time. * I Modern, and Comfortable Waiting Rooms Are Feature Of New Building This is one of the two new waiting rooms in the new wing of the Hospital. Attractive decorations, together with modern and comfort able furniture are features of both of the rooms. <Mountaineer Photo). Drug Is Effective In Treatment Of Arthritis This is the story of two miracles. The first miracle was the discovery of the quick curative effect of a new drug. The second miracle con-; cerns the production of that drug, j Four years ago, in the fall of 1948, a young woman suffering from rheumatoid arthritis seemed to be an incurable patient, at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn. She could scarcely move in bed without extreme pain. Her physi cian had tried every known remedy to relieve, her distress, and was waiting for a new drug being pre pared-by an eastern manufacturer. The day it arrived he injected a dose into her arm. There was lit tle change during the first 24 hours. After the second dose the suffering woman's pain began to I ease away, and the swelling of her joints began to subside. Five days after the first injection, she eager ly got out of bed and went to town for a three-hour shopping spree, about the happiest woman in Am erica. That was the first test of the new drug, cortisone. The remain der of the first sample was ad ministered to 13 other patients, in cluding some who suffered from rheumatic fever. The results were apparently as miraculous in all cases. The second miracle concerned with cortisone is credited to the chemical industry. When Dr. Lewis H. Sarett, research scientist on the staff of Merck & Co.. was Asked how he had known what to do in carrying through the 37 pre cise chemical steps that enabled him to produce the first sample of cortisone for the Mayo clinic, he replied that he must have been guided bv the "Master upstairs". That same guiding hand seems I to have directed events that fol lowed. Never before had the/ pharmaceutical industry been fac ed with such stupendous prob lems. No commercial produce in their line had required 37 chemi cal reactions. The basic material utilized bovine adrenalin glands. It took the glands of 40 cattle to produce a single dose of medicine. The number of cattle slaughtered in the United States is about 18, 000,000 a year. Continued clinical tests revealed that so many more riiseasfs would be helned by corti sone that it would be needed for approximately 20.000,000 people daily. The ethical drug industry ac-1 reptcd this unprecedented chal lenge promptly. In doing so they presented an extraordinary ex ample of how American free en terprise and the incentive of our Patent System works, according to National Patent Council. All of those first basic patents '? held by Merck & Co.. and several others, were nlaced for adminis tration and license in the hands of Research Corporation, a New York nonprofit organization that func tions to advance scientific discov eries. Copies of patpnts granted are available to the public. Methods and processes are fully disclosed. Thus, there was no need for others to waste precious materials and effort to work over ground that had already been covered and re vealed in the patents. From this advantage a dozen or more firms entered the race to invent and patent Improved methods of pro ducing cortisone so that it would become available to all at a price within reach of all. Research projects to achieve these ends extended in many di rections. The primary objective ap peared to be toward a more avail able basic material than cattle glands. The cortlson hormone was stripped down to its naked ele ments, and one last atom of oxv gen stood as the moat obstinate to adjust to Its proper place In the molecule. The search carried five separately sponsored expeditions to Africa to find a certain vine. They found the vine, but it proved worthless. A Chicago firm made progress by keeping the adrenalin glands alive for hours to furnish more of their precious product. A Harvard professor, working u nder<ipFPWiiii*p^Fiww8ii from a petroleum base. Other basic materials found adequate to side step animal glands included yeast, yams, egg yolk, and wool fat. The result of all this exploration is that new multi-million dollar factories were constructed for the production of cortisone. It was promised that the miracle drug would be jn full production by the end of 1952 so that tlje millions who needed it would be able to get it at a price they could afford to pay. Where else but in America, with its superior Patent System, could be found the incentives to accomplish such a miracle against such odds in so short a time? Spinach Is Good Only For Popeye By International News Service LONDON?A British doctor says there is no reason why children should eat their spinach?no matter what spinach is supposed to do for Popeye the Sailor. Dr. Charles Hill, parliamentary secretary to the British Food Min istry, told the Royal Society of Arts Ui London: J "Spinach used to be considered a wonderful source of iron and many a child was forced against his will to eat this rather bitter vege table, ' which had little appeai to him apart from its valuable prop erties as maker of a particularly taitafc .cji. I "It is nut an cawn J none ol its prupenm J anyone an immwtfa^ ergy foi a suddeit^S siren-1' Theodore Huotestg J youngest man e\trn,bqj ideal u! i lie United **? Q -i luuk jfJ TJ j Truly, Among The Finest IS THE MODERN Haywood County Hospital . ? It is an asset to the Entire Area. WE ARE GLAD TO HAVE THEM AS $ A CUSTOMER TALMAN OFFICE SUPPLIES ASHEVILLE "' "J * ? *. A Most Priceless Contribution To Protect The Welfare Of The Community. . 1 j To You ? Haywood County Hospital Congratulations. ? Royle and Pilkingion Co., Inc. Phone 800 Hazelwood, N.C. A Wonderful Institution Thai Enjoys Good 52? MEATS ?i - a necessity for Patients and Hospital Personne ATTEND THE OPEN . ? HOUSE PROGRAM OF ? ? .. - m? THE HOSPITAL ? ? " . ' '? | * 1 ' SELECTO / EAST TENNESSEE The Emblem Of 1 P*CS?T Quality ' j Since 1896
The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, N.C.)
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May 11, 1953, edition 1
26
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