Word: tumorous
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...past 18 months, Susan Foss has been paralyzed from the neck down with a spinal tumor. Anywhere else in the world, the pretty, 20-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, housewife would probably be confined to a hospital for the rest of her life. Yet, except for a few hours each day when she undergoes physical and occupational therapy at a nearby hospital, Susan spends all her time at home. Her routine needs are met either by her husband Chris or by a nurse and a home aide who regularly visit the Foss household...
...principal lines of defense against lesser hypothetical risks. They establish four levels of physical containment; these range from standard laboratory precautions (dubbed "P-l") for experiments in the lowest-risk category-say, injecting harmless bacterial genes into E. coli-to ultrasecure laboratories ("P-4") for work with animal tumor viruses or primate cells. At present, two new P-4 facilities are almost ready. One is a gleaming white trailer parked behind a bar bed-wire fence on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. It has a totally sealed environment, airlocks, decontamination systems, showers for workers...
...breast tumor is still small-no more than 4 cm. (1½ in.) in diameter -doctors first excise the growth in a relatively simple surgical procedure called a lumpectomy. Larger tumors are left in place because their removal would destroy the shape of the breast. Then the radioactive material, usually the shortlived, man-made isotope iridium 192, is inserted into the tumor area. The technique requires extreme care; the iridium must be inserted precisely and in just the right quantity to avoid damage to nearby healthy tissue...
Typically, the physician pushes several hollow steel needles horizontally into the breast through the tumorous area and out the other side (see diagram). Thin plastic tubes are then threaded through the needles (which are subsequently removed) and anchored in place by small plastic buttons at either end. The iridium-in the form of tiny "seeds" embedded in a thin, stiff nylon ribbon -is inserted into the tubes. The outer layer of the seed is a steel sheathing; it blocks dangerous ionizing beta rays (electrons), but allows the escape of the high-energy gamma rays that destroy the tumor...
...additional tissue is no insurance against a recurrence of the disease; too often, cancerous cells have already spread to other parts of the body far from their original site in the breast. Thus, Hellman and other doctors are stressing local control of the cancer by destroying the primary tumor-with radiation from an external or internal source, or both-without subjecting the patient to further disfigurement...