The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-12-30
NATIONAL FIGHT
AGAINST CANCER
Campaign Of Education Under
Way TO Check It's Spread.
HOPE IN EARLY TREATMENT


Combating, Disease, Which Is In
oreasing, Although Claim Is Made
For Radium as a Cure.
Death by cancer claiirs $4,000 people
every year In the United States. The
scourge is steadily increasing, says
Graham r. Taylor in the Survey. But
hope for its control is growing, for we
are coming more widely to understand
that the disease is durable if treated
in early stages. This knowledge with
reference to tuberculosis started the
great campaign against the white
plague Similarly a nation wide fight
against cancer is being organized by
the recently formed American Society
For the Control of Cancer.
In spite of premature enthusiasm
over radium and the constituencies
statements of quacks the surgeons
knife is the only known cure. Prompt
diagnosis and an immediate thorough
operation offer high probability of
saving the patients life, while delay
and neglect mean certain and terrible
death. To spread this simple gospel
to every corner of the land the society
is beginning an active campaign of
publicity and education.
Only tuberculosis and pneumonia
claim a greater number of victims an
nually than cancer. For the decade
ending with 1911 the cancer death rate
has increased from 65.S per 100000 of
the population in 1901 to $50 in 1911.
A Destroyer of Homes.
From the social standpoint it is of
is distinctly a disease of adult life
Deaths from cancer make up one-six-
teenth of the mortality from all causes
at the ages of forty-five and over. This
means that cancer directs its terrific
onslaught largely against mothers and
fathers of families.
Cancer is not at first a general dis
ease of the blood, and despair and sur
render in face of the disease is not
warranted. We now known that can
Ger is always at first local disease
which can often be completely removed
by adequate surgery. The knife is the
only known sure remedy, and the ter
rible scourge gives its victim only one
chance. Delay means not simply dan
ger, but inevitable death. And again
| the result of a delayed or incomplete
operation is almost always fatal.
Radium is considered by enthusiasts
to promise curative agency of I'M
matched beneficence to mankind, but
| we must know much more than we do
now of its effects before we can abate
in the slightest the urgent emphasis on
| surgical treatment. We have not yet
been able in this country to make an
authoritive determination of its value
| Few American surgeons have sufficient
radium available to give a thorough
trial, especially as it appears that ex-
tensive doses sometimes cure when
smaller amounts have but little effect.
| Only time will tell what percentage
of cases can be cured with radium
and in the meantime the Society Fol
the Control of Cancer warns the pub
lie that early surgical treatment af
fords the best chance for cure of can
Ger.
Methods to Be Employed.
To meet the need of a definite spe
cial agency to fight the battle of soci
ETY. against this disease the American
Society For the Control of Cancer has
been formed Patterned somewhat
after the National Association For thS
Study and Prevention of tuberculosis
yet recognizing an entirely differen
| problem and planning different meth
DDS, the organization aims to establish
clearing house of information OF
cancer and to become the channe
through which authoritative state
ments will be made to the public.
One of the first objects will be Il
obtain the keeping of systematic ant
uniform records of cancer cases il
hospitals and dispensaries to provide
the basis for more detailed and posi-
tive deductions as to the value o
surgical treatment in different mani
festations and stages of the disease
When by this method and by the col
lection and study of statistics from al
available sources new light is throw
on the cancer question the fnding
will be spread abroad through all avail
able channels.