MYSTERY OF CANCER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 201, 23 August 1905, Page 9

MYSTERY OF CANCER.

THE ABANDONMENT OF THE PARASITE THEORY. The statement by Sir William Church at the annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research i"und that cancer was not associated with peculiarities of diet, climate, or nioc_2 of life, and that the true clue to the mystery of the disease was to be found in its marvellous power cf cell multiplication, has awakened the greatest, public interest. If research Ims not yet solved the mystery, it has at least pointed the way to success, and what is almost as important, it has got rid of a host of fallacies concerning this dreadful scourge. Tomatoes -w,_re at one time supposed to be the cause of cancer; and at another a meat diet was suggested. Then excess of salt in food was definitely said to cause the disease: again, arsenic was thought to have some definite influence in its production: and, lastly, certain particular houses became known as ."cancel- houses" owing to frequent occurrence of the disease in them. IS CANCER INFECTIOUS. The report submitted to the meetinti of the Research Fund contains the statement that "cancer is not caused by a parasite entering the body from without."' Concerning this point a wellknown pathologist who has been engaged in cancer research at a London hospital writes:— "This is certainly the most important statement made in th,? report, investigators thereby abandoning the parasitic theory of cancer. "Until definitely proved this statement appears to have been mad? on insufficient grounds: and there are many who maintain (and not without, re-,i-_on«)that cancer is an infectious disease. that the virus is as yet unchanged in til? cancer cells may he due to a virus entering the body from without, which mr present-day methods of research are inadequate to discover. In small-pox Mid hydrophobia, which are undoubtedly, infectious diseases, the virus is as yet | unknown, though its existence is highly! irnlrtble. "The committee state that future work : mush be directed to ascertaining why: •ancer arises 'de novo' in each individu-

al attacked by the disease. We must dis<-ovcr what cau.-e« the cells to pro- i literate. Is it an inherent property ofthe cells themselves, or is it .~onie ex- J citing agent from without, such as a ' microbe? If cancer is infectious, and j there are some cases that suggest this, j its infectivitv must be of a very low or- j der. Nevertheless, until we know how | cancer arises it would bo safer to re- ' gard it as infective. j "Irritation seems to play an itnportant part in the cause of the disease, as j it does in so ma_iy other diseases, by : lowering the local resistance of the tis- j sues. Cancer of the lip often arises in ' those who smoke a clay pipe, cancer of, the tongue in those who have a jagged tooth, and many other similar instances i might be cited. "The question of the treatment still remains a surgical one; early and free removal of the growth with the knife is the only certain method of eon-bating: th- disease." '