CANCER “CURES"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23885, 12 August 1939, Page 12

CANCER “CURES"

In the fight against cancer it is the duty of medical science to neglect no avenue of investigation, however dubious it may seem to informed opinion, that may lead to more effective treatment of this dread disease. This generalisation may be applied to such so-called cancer remedies as the Baker and Koch methods, which have attained some considerable notoriety overseas. At the request of Dr Ulric Williams, of Wanganui, the New Zealand Government appointed a medical committee to inquire into the claims made for this treatment, and the committee’s findings are embodied in the annual report of the Department of Health. It will come as no surprise to people who are at all familiar with the history of this “ cure ” in America, to learn that the committee has declared it to be worthless. “All the evidence available, without exception,” its report declares, “ convinces our committee that the claim cannot be substantiated that the treatment which we saw practised at Wanganui has any merit as a cure or a palliative for cancer.” The committee proceeds to emphasise the fact, which should be self-evident, that by recourse to discredited cancer cures the sufferer from this disease may waste valuable time, allowing its onslaught to reach an advanced stage where effective scientific-treatment is difficult, often impossible. That the investigation was not completed is a circumstance that allows no ground for doubting the finality of the committee’s conclusions. It appears that Dr Williams was responsible for discontinuing the inquiry, his reason being that the proponents of the Baker and Koch treatment had de-

dined to submit their products to a test in their absence —in fact, that an impartial examination of the vaunted “ cure ” by a scientificallycomposed and responsible jury had been refused. This is damning evidence, but, from the viewpoint of the originators and marketers of the Baker and Koch nostrum, it is comprehensible. The Mr Baker who, after an undistinguished career as a salesman of cigars and alarm clocks, found in a cancer “ cure ” a more lucrative commodity to peddle to the gullible American public, had previously endured the embarrassment of having his claims examined and denounced, by no less an authority than the American Medical Association. The Koch “ cure ” has been independently investigated and pronounced as valueless by the Western Australian branch of the British Medical Association. Obviously the attentions of medical science are not welcomed by the interests which have reputedly made a fortune from a heartless and cynical fraud, imposed upon persons suffering from a malignant disease. The New Zealand investigation has added nothing to the sum of knowledge concerning cancer and its treatment, but it will not have been in vain if the publicity given to the committee’s report has the effect of warning the public against placing reliance in, and expending money upon, “ remedies ” for cancer that are, for the reasons stated, worse than useless. As to the ultimate victory over cancer, there is no need to despair. In a recent address, at the opening of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund’s new laboratories in England, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins declared that there was reason to be optimistic concerning the advances that have been made. Cancer research, he said, was yielding results of unforeseen promise, and it was desirable that the lay public should be encouraged in the belief that a solution of the whole problem will be reached. Since the best hope of saving the lives of victims lies at present in early treatment by recognised methods, and for the future in the cumulative efforts of the special researchers, it should not require emphasis that attempts to confuse the issue with inade-quately-tested cures, or by derogation of the Imperial Cancer Research authority’s work, are not only mischievous but may do a grave disservice to medicine and to the public alike.