Today radium is used in fighting cancer and a number of other medically necessary reasons. You have to have a reason to be given medication that has traces of any radium in it and that is because of how dangerous it actually is. It is very possible that the use of radium in cancer treatments causes other cancers to develop, but we didn't know any of this at first. Radium was believed to be the best element we had ever found, leading many to think that it would extend their lives if they consumed large amounts of it, but in reality it only left them with a deadly glow.