CURE OF CANCER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 64, 17 March 1927, Page 9

CURE OF CANCER

EARLY OPERATION

FAMOUS SURGEON'S VIEWS

ADVICE TO THE PUBLIC

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON,- 26th January.

That conservative body, the British Medical Association, has advanced a ,Sstep in its development, and has now organised a series of public lectures as ft means of taking the public into its confidence. The first of these lectures was given by Sir Berkeley Moynihan, president of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, his subject being"Cancer."

In this country, said Sir Berkeley, jone person 5". every seven over the age of 30 fiied of cancer; in England and Wales 50,000 people died yearly; and, according to Hoffman, 500,000 lives were lost annually in the civilised countries of the world from this disease. JThe law of averages appeared to be changing against us, for there could be little doubt that cancer was definitely on the increase, especially in certain organs. Cancer was an ancient and heartless foe. Examples of its lethal power were found in bones taken from the tombs near the Pyramids of Egypt, dating from 3500 years before Christ; it waa known and described over twenty centuries ago by Hippocrates; and it had never since ceased for one single day to take its toll of precious lives. While little by little but very surely we were obtaining control over certain diseases which were formerly the plague^ of mankind, cancer, by comparison iwith them, was actually gaining ground. Cancer was now the most dreaded, the most inexorable, the most menacing of all the physical infirmities of our race; it was the "Captain of the men of death." RECENT STATISTICS. In the last twenty years there had been a fall of 32 per cent, in the general death rate, of 45 per cent in the Infant death rate, and of 38 per cent, in the tuberculosis death rate; but the cancer death rate had increased 20 per cent., and in the last seventy years the mortality from cancer had increased five-fold. In cancer of the tongue there had been an increase of 39 per cent, and in cancer of the breast an increase of 28 per cent, in the last twenty years. At the same time more people than ever were being cured of cancer —for it was true that the disase could be cured; and that the patient could be relieved for ever of it. To-day operations of wide extent and of low mortality were more' often followed by permanent freedom from recurrence than they were twenty years ago. We heard of deaths from operations, of recurrence of cancer after its removal; but ■we heard little, even from the- rescued, of their freedom from' the disease. Among the explanations that had been advanced in attempts to account for the increase in the canee- death-rate was the increased accuracy of diagnosis, but if regard were paid to those cases in which diagnosis could never have been difficult, because the disease was near the surface and easily seen or felt, this argument was found to be not sustained. "If," said the lecturer, "it is true, as it is indubitably true,, that permanent relief from cancer is being secured by our present methods, in large numbers of cases the question naturally arises.as'to-why-this is notmoro often possible.. AYe are all a little to blame. Medical men are sometimes, though I am- glad to think not very often, inclined to watch the earlier phases of this disease, especially when attacking internal organs, until it is certain that the condition is malignant. The certainty of diagnosis is often the.certainty , of death. If we-wait'until wo know we wait until we cannot cure. We must 'look and see, know and act,' and not 'wait and see.' And the public are in part to blame, for among them there is a,.great ignorance of the possibilities and the achievement of surgery, -and ignorance is the parent of unbelief. * DELAY A DANGER. "What is the attitude of a patient who discovers a lump on the body, say a tumour in the .breast? She says, 'There is something wrong here, it may be cancer; if it is cancer I must under-' go' an operation; if I do I may die; if I • survive the disease may come back; if.it returns I must submit once again to operation with all its risks; oven then the disease may recur. It is a hopeless and depressing prospect; I had better not mention the fact of the lump.' And so timo passes; the tumour grows and grows through every moment of every hour of every day, and at last the patient submits to a rescue operation, which the surgeon is reluctantly compelled to perform, knowing that he must do his best in adverse circumstances, when precious time has been wasted, when the chances now are all against him."

Cancer seized a man as a rule in the latter half of his second period of life, when his worth to his family and to the community was at its highest. As to how to fight, Sir Berkeley Moynihan said:—

"In the first .place we must so instruct the public and educate ourselves that those cases of cancer in which, complete eradication of the disease is surgically possible shall be recognised and treated at the earliest moment. ...

"And, in the second place, we must carry out all manner of research to disclose the secret, the most baffling and elusive secret, of the cause and the prevention of cancer, so that inaccessible cancer shall also be treated with success, or even prevented. We may even dare to hope that we are not.far distant from the day when these mysteries will at last be revealed; when what 5s perhaps tho_ heaviest burden ever laid upon mankind shall at last bo lifted." CANONS OF THE.DISEASE. Sir Berkeley then laid down certain canons of the disease, tabulating them by numbers as'follows:— 1. Cancer is always at first a local Sisease. 2. Cancer chooses a diseased Tather than a healthy organ. . . The majority of people, it may be' said, commit suicide. If we consider the effect of alcohol, syphilis, tubercle; of the conditions which are set going by the rnsh for wealth, with all- its attendant sacrifices of caution and prudence with regard to health from day to day, the statement, though shocking, appears to be true. 3. The occurrence of cancer is influenced by antecedent conditions, and the corollary to this ia that cancer, in ■ certain instances, may be regarded as a preventable disease.

4. The occurrence of cancer, so far &3 we know, is uninfluenced by certain factors sometimes regarded as causes. Among these the lecturer mentioned heredity, special foods, and cancer houses and areas.

5. The disease is neither infectious iaor contagious.

6. It spreads from the spot affected by direct extension, and is not, a blood idisease.

y In the early stages it rarely causes S: When the disease is local and the |jroii.%h ia accessible, cancer is curable. Aff to the immediato duty ho said: 138 -joints pjrjon. -which, jvc ahonia at.