The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-09-11
CANCER NOT A DISEASE
OF THE BLOOD
american Medical Journal.)

american Medical Journal.)
Cancer causes thousands of prevent
able deaths because people do not
seek surgical treatment in time, even
after they know they have the disease.
Surgeons with practices so extensive
that their reports furnish a reliable
guide have shown that cancer patients
even after discovering some suspic-
ious symptoms wait on the average a
whloe year before they seek treat
ment To control the disease with
our present knowledge the first thing
to do is to eliminate this fatal delay
To do this it is necessary to under
stand why patients are so loath to
seek examination. A Misrepresentation
which constitutes one reason for re-
luctance to consult physician in
time, is the notion which still prevails
that cancer is a constitutional disease
caused by some poison in the blood.
Those who hold this mistaken opinion
commonly believe that the disease is
hereditary and in a vague way they
think there must be some faint hand
ed down from one generation to ano-
Their which causes cancer to flourish
in certain families. Such misappre-
hcnsion combined with the notion
which has long prevailed that cancer
| is incurable and that it is of no use
to try to have anything done for it,
accounts for the extraordinary delay
of the sufferer in seeking relief in
some cases A further probable cause
$ the fact that cancer in the early
stages is relatively painless Many
surgeon has wished that cancer in its
! ori, 80 1rrh he uH
! half as much trouble as the toothche,
in which case the patient would surely
| be driven TO seek relief in time. Can
Ger is at first a local growth and not
general disease of the system. This
since it holds out the high hope of
cure if the malignant growth is re-
moved before it has time to spread to
other places because small particles
or cells are carried away from the
first site and start new growths else
where. The great hope of cure there
fore lies in removing cancer entirely
from the system before it has a
chance to spread from its first foot
hold
The reason why so many people
came to believe that cancer was a
blood disease is because it was OBJ
served to come again nthe same or
other parts of the body after having
been apparently cut out 1t was ma
tural TO assume that when the dis
ease kept coming back in this manner
that there must be SOME faint in the
blood The trouble was that in earlier
times cancer was not really cut out
| Surgeons then did the best they
knew how but without the advantages
of modern methods they were unable
successfully to exterminate the dis
case even in its incipient and local
stage. This was principally because
they did not operate extensively
enough The microscope has shown
rs the paths by which cancer cells
start their invasion of the body and
modern surgeons are repeatedly sue
cessful in removing the disease once
for all time. Cancer is not blood
disease, and there is no conclusive
evidence that it is hereditary. Many
efforts have been made to show that
the disease is transmitted from one
! generation to another or that at least
certain susceptibility to cancer is
thus passed on. The evidence on this
point however. remains insufficient