Radium and the Origins of the National Cancer Institute

R a d i u m a n d t h e N CI95Radium and the Origins of theNational Cancer InstituteDavid CantorIntroductionIt is commonly supposed that the National Cancer Institute (NCI)began life in 1937 as a pure research organization, almost unsullied by itssubsidiary functions of cancer control and prevention. Historians haveshown that supporters of the 1937 Cancer Bill which led to the creationof the NCI strongly argued their case in terms of the need for research; 1that the National Advisory Cancer Council (NACC), the NCI’s advisorybody, saw it as focused primarily on research; 2 and that basic and clinicalresearch scientists took over the institute. 3 Most accounts of the historyof post-1937 NCI thus tell the story of a research organization. 4 Thegeneral assumption is that research always dominated the NCI. Anargument of this paper is that this assumption is quite mistaken. In itsfirst fiscal year, the vast bulk of the NCI’s money went not on research,but on routine therapy.The point can be made by a focus on radium. The 1937 Act establishingthe institute required the NCI to purchase radium, and Congressauthorized the expenditure of $200,000 for this purpose, far exceedingthe estimated expenditure for anything else in the appropriation of$400,000 for fiscal year 1938. 5 What must be recognized is that thisradium was not intended for research. 6 Most of it was loaned to hospitalsacross the United States for the routine treatment of cancer, mainly forpatients who otherwise would have been unable to afford the therapy.To put it another way, about half the budget of the NCI in its first