Some results of these early radium experiments were positive. In several cases, patients reported that radium treatment reduced pain, and radium exposure often reduced the size of cancerous growths. In the case of patient #5, "Mr. S.," Truman saw the patient off and on for five years, beginning in 1904, and although the epitheliomia on the patient's lip never entirely healed, Abbe included a note in the file that the patient, when he died of "nephritis" in 1916, still had his "lip intact."

As a miracle cure, however, radium had distinct limitations. The two most advanced cancer cases died shortly after beginning treatment, and in many others it remains unclear as to whether or not radium treatment worked or for how long. The patient with rectal cancer experienced a dramatic reduction in the size of the tumor and a corresponding improvement in the quality of his life, but the case notes seem to show the cancer coming back after only a couple of months. In many of the cases, moreover, Truman Abbe's notes remain frustratingly vague or incomplete, recording the length of treatment, but not the results, or terminating abruptly without recording the fate of the patient. Nevertheless, any treatment and any amount of success in cases like those treated by Truman Abbe represented a therapeutic gain over the status quo, where patients with cancer had little or no hope of successful treatment.  Many more doctors would soon join the Abbes in using radium to treat patients.