A CURE FOR CANCER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 7

A CURE FOR CANCER.

THE VACCINE TREATMENT.

IMPORTANT RESEARCH WORK.

A medical congress, at which important results of research work were made known, was recently held at Manila. Major A. Hooton, of the Indian medical service. who arrived in Auckland by the Morea on Wednesday, attended the conference, which was the first held under the auspices of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, as the representative of the Government of India,' and delegates were also present from Ceylon, Singapore, Siam, Hongkong. Japan, and the German possessions in China.

In referring, in the course of an interview yesterday, to the success of the meeting. Major Hcoton said that one of the most remarkable results made known referred to leprosy, the bacillus of which may now be said, almost with certainty, to have been at last successfully cultivated. It was also announced that a new treatment had been evolved for cancer, which appears to be most promising. '1 he treatment has been tried for nearly a. year, and the Manila doctors state that almost all the cases treated have improved materially. Major Hooten added that it was too early yet to ray whether the cure was permanent or not, but he stated that a number of cases had been treated" which would not otherwise have been treated, and the persons were still living after a considerable period, and were much improved. Tire treatment consists of an injection of vaccine.

A leading Auckland doctor speaks of the treatment here, referred to as luglm important. "Nearly all diseases which have been thought to be produced by the action of germs." he said, "have at last had the infecting genu isolated and cultures made from it. This liar, been done with leprosy, in tact one may say with all germ diseases or diseases caused by germs. One exception stands out. namely, hydrophobia. When Pasteur first undertook his cure of rabies by the injection of dried glycerinaled spinal cord of rabbits which had died of rabies, he was acting then, and successfully, as all the world knows, as we to-day are doing, in other words, treating the case with a hair of the dog that bit him." This seems the more wonderful since no one knows to the present moment the germ of hydrophobia. That there is a genu practically goes without saying, and no doubt it will some day be discovered in some simple, and possibly accidental, manner.

" Cancer, on the other hand, continued the doctor, "is baffling in this respect, that no one knows its cause, whether there is a germ, or whether it be a change in the tells composing the tissues themselves. When the cause is found, successful treatment always follows. This is our difficulty with cancer. Now we come to the vaccine treatment. This was first introduced some years ago by a medical man observing that one of bis cancer cases just operated upon, and really inoperable, developed en the second day after the operation an acute attack of erysipelas. Strange to say, as the er\\si]>elas abated the fungating cancerous tumor dwindled, and the patient recovered. Noting this, the medical man prepared an injection of virulent erysipelas germSj which he injected into his next cancerous patient. In this case erysipelas developed very seriously, and nearly endangered the patient's life, but the cancerous growth improved remarkably. From this there followed the injection of a vaccine composed of the germs of erysipelas and the germs called " bacillus prodigiosus," the last-named of which is ■ the red mould which is occasionally seen on moist, musty bread. This itself has no action on the living body, but combined with the vaccine of erysipelas it produces marked healing changes in fungating epitheliomatous cancers. This evidently is the vaccine, or form of vaccine, to which Major Hooton refers, and no doubt the treatment known as the opsonic or vaccine treatment will some day lead to the discovery of a still better and more active vaccine."