Radium - a key element in early cancer treatment
An early example of how blue skies research by Pierre and Marie Curie led to the treatment of previously incurable cancers
One hundred years ago, in 1911, Marie Curie was awarded her second Nobel prize, this time for chemistry:
...in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.1
Radium and its decay product, radon, were used in medicine for well over half a century until being supplanted by radioactive isotopes prepared in nuclear reactors. This account describes their early use.
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