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While progress was the hallmark of medicine after the beginning of the 20th century, malignant disease, or cancer, continued to pose major challenges. Cancer became the second most common cause of death in most Western countries in the second half of the 20th century, exceeded only by deaths from heart disease. Nonetheless, some progress was achieved. The causes of many types of malignancies were unknown, but methods became available for attacking the problem. Surgery remained the principal therapeutic standby, but radiation therapy and chemotherapy were increasingly used. Soon after the discovery of radium was announced in 1898, its potentialities in ...(100 of 21288 words)