RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES IN MANAGEMENT OF CARCINOMATOSIS OF SEROUS BODY CAVITIES

Abstract

THE CONTINUING, accelerating struggle for mastery over malignant diseases in the human has resulted in some tendency to overlook the need for and the availability of weapons with which we may attempt to achieve palliation. By and large this field of endeavor has been all too eagerly reserved for those few persons who have grasped the responsibility which actually rests upon all of us. Admittedly, such a solution has much genuine merit, however, available personnel and facilities are so meager for the problem at hand that many victims of cancer receive little or no considerate, planned therapy aimed at the production of a maximum degree of aid and comfort. The onset of intractable effusion in one or more of the serous cavities is a distressing complication of advancing malignant disease. The true frequency with which such a state is reached cannot be estimated with accuracy; however, Clark¹has reported that significant