Word: phosphorus
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TREATMENT: radioactive iodine, phosphorus and gold are effective in half a dozen diseases, though in no more...
...Shot of Phosphorus. After iodine, radioactive phosphorus is the isotope which has proved most useful in treatment. It seems to be as effective as any other means of combating two kinds of chronic leukemia (lymphatic and myeloid), and it is more convenient than others. It is useless against the acute leukemias of childhood...
...news from his doctors: he had chronic lymphatic leukemia. X-ray treatment might have slowed down the disease enough to give the patient ten or even 20 years of useful life, but doctors have done the job more easily with an occasional injection of colorless fluid containing phosphorus...
...numerous. This is because the radioactive atoms act on the bone marrow, where both types of blood cells are made. If either red or white cells are increasing too fast, the radioactivity cuts down their birth rate. For simple polycythemia (uncomplicated by disease of the heart or lungs), radioactive phosphorus is the best medication known today. Some patients are still getting along well 15 years after beginning this treatment, and their number is growing daily...
Several other radioisotopes offer marked advantages in treating some of the less dramatic (and usually nonfatal) forms of cancer. Example: blotting paper soaks up a solution containing phosphorus-32; the paper can then be cut to the exact shape of a skin cancer and held in place with adhesive tape. In a few days the cancer is arrested. Strontium-go, on the end of a probe, has been found to be even better than phosphorus-32 for treating malignant growths...