O Instituto do Radium de Belo Horizonte: ousadia e inovação tecnológica na terapêutica do câncer no Brasil (1922 – 1950)

Abstract

This study aims at the identification and analysis of the innovative character of the Instituto do Radium of Belo Horizonte in relation to oncological treatment. My specific focus deals with the relations between that Institute and the research performed in Europe and elsewhere, especially the studies conducted by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie on radioactivity. In the Introduction general aspects of the research are treated. Chapter 1 discusses the contributions of radioactivity to medical science, presenting a retrospective of the pioneering work on radioactivity. I also showed that radiotherapy had its origin with the chemical element radium, represented by the symbol 226Ra and atomic number 88, which was discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, and was soon used in the treatment of cancer cells known as Curietherapy. Chapter 2 is devoted to the study of medical science in Brazil, from the second half of the XIXth century. In it I treat the impact of the debate on bacteriology and its insertion into the world of microbiological research, to present the scientific research conducted on experimental medicine. This was circumscribed to alumni of the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, especially the first group of medical researchers who established biomedical studies in the country, considering the importance of Dr. Oswaldo Cruz as mentor of those academics. Amongst those alumni I pinpoint Eduardo Borges da Costa at his time of residence at the Instituto Soroterápico Federal, in the Manguinhos estate, under the supervision of Oswaldo Cruz and Rocha Lima. Chaper 3 treats of the Instituto do Radium of Belo Horizonte from its beginnings and establishment, and the use of radioisotopes, such as the famous ampoules containing radium salts, an episode closely linked with the visit of Madame Curie to Belo Horizonte in 1926. Then I draw a line along the period in which the Instituto do Radium became a true milestone in technological innovation, combining therapeutics based on radioisotopes with the newest surgical techniques, during the years 1922 to 1950.