Cancer

Cancer causes one-tenth of all deaths among grown-ups in the U. S. Yearly from 100,000 to 125,000 people die here from this dis ease. It presents itself in four main ways: 1) epithelial, in which there is no rodlike framework; 2) scirrhous or hard, in which the framework predominates and the tumor is hard and of slow growth; 3) encephaloid or soft, in which the cellular element predominates and the tumor is soft, grows rapidly and often ulcerates; and 4) colloid, in which the cancerous structure becomes gelatinous. The last three are also called carcinoma. There are no positive ways of curing cancer after it has leached advanced stages. Its progress may be arrested, in some cases, by cer tain treatments. Discovered early and carefully treated by competent physicians or surgeons, it may be cured in most cases.

The source of cancer has not been determined finally, whether cellular, blastodermic or what. Certainly a cell, strange to its surroundings, proliferates, eats into neighboring tissues, causes horrible sufferings and despair.

Prof. Wood's Report. Last week the American Society for the Control of Cancer met in Manhattan; heard its Managing Director, Dr. George A. Soper, report on European activities against cancer; heard too Professor Francis Carter Wood, director of Columbia University's Institute of Cancer Research, report on most recent remedial research.

In England, at Liverpool, Dr. William Blair Bell, Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Liverpool, has been treating cancer patients by injecting into their veins a certain amount of metallic lead in a very fine state of suspension, a so-called colloidal lead. He has treated 250 patients. Of these 50, or one out of five, showed improvement. The solution is very unstable; keeps only 48 hours; cannot be transported. Patients must be hospitalized and kept under exceptionally expert supervision. Dr. Wood reported :

"Only long and painstaking study of the disease as influenced by this remedy will result in improving the results so far obtained. . . . Of the 50 [improved] cases, one has gone five years without a return of the disease, others from two to three; but most of the patients are too recent to enable a definite opinion. . . . Unfortunately it is quite impossible at present to determine the type of cancer which will be favorably influenced, so that no guarantee of improvement can be offered to any individual case. Some people bear the lead injections without serious disturbance, while others show evidence of poisoning so promptly that the treatment has to be abandoned. . . . "The gist of the matter is, then, that we have a treatment which brings at least temporary relief to one person in five who takes it, but that the remedy is extremely dangerous; that the drug is difficult to prepare, impossible to keep, and therefore for the present must be handled only by those who are familiar with its use. This means that all patients who desire to avail themselves of this treatment must go to Liverpool and place themselves under the care of the group of physicians who have familiarized themselves with the symptoms which indicate whether a patient can stand a sufficient dose to affect the tumor.

"From this survey it will be evident that the final solution of the cancer problem has not been reached and patients will still have to rely upon early diagnosis and prompt surgical treatment as at present for the most effective means of curing early cancer. Radium and X-ray still remain useful forms of treatment where surgery is not available, and colloidal lead seems to promise hope to others. But at present no final judgment can be rendered concerning its efficacy, nor does it seem likely that in the near future will any great improvement in its use be discovered. Nevertheless it is clearly the most important advance in the treatment of cancer which has been made since the advent of radium and Xray, and one which gives hope of much greater usefulness in the future." Dr. Wood also conferred with Professor Claude Regaud, who at the Institute Curie in Paris is treating various types of cancer with highly filtered radium and X-rays. He gives small doses of radium over a long period, as against the German method of one large destructive dose. In Dr. Wood's judgment the French method is preferable. Dr. Soper's Report. Dr. George A. Soper traveled extensively over Europe; found cancer as prevalent there as in the U. S., or more so; praised the preparations being made there for a long campaign against the disease. The League of Nations has a committee comparing statistics of one nation with those of others in hopes of learning the cause of the malady. The British government supports research and education. France has anti-cancer clinics. Switzerland patronizes a centre for the study and treatment of cancer. Belgium also has such. Before the American Society for the Control of Cancer, Dr. Soper urged last week: "People must be taught the early signs of cancer and induced to seek competent medical attention when they think they recognize them."

Of cancer died recently Beatrix Hamilton Leacock, who married in 1900 Stephen Butler Leacock, professor of political economy at McGill University, Montreal. Far gone with the disease, she had journeyed to Liverpool to enlist the colloidal lead solution treatment of Professor William Blair Bell. But he could do her no good. She was one of the 250 he ministered to, one of the 200 he could not benefit, one of the few who died. For years Professor Leacock had watched his wife dying; had watched come over her the pallor and emaciation of brave suffering. But a public had come to like and demand his witticisms, stimulated by his uproarious Literary Lapses of 1910. Fifteen other laugh-provoking books he wrote* perforce, many of them as his wife failed. The public knew not his private life; demanded laughs; got them. Last week he let it be known that he would devote his fortune and his writing ability to forwarding a strenuous campaign for research in cancer or its prevention. He will probably act through the British Society for the Control of Cancer, which has branches in all the dominions.

* He has also written, seriously, Elements of Political Science (1906), Baldwin and La Fontaine (Makers of Canada Series) (1907), The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice (1920), and a great number of articles and sketches.