Connecticut western news., 1914-06-04
HOLDS OUT HOPE
 IN CANCER CASES
Danger In Small Wounds That Demand Quick Attention.
ENCOURAGING STATISTICS.

These Are Given by Officer of Society
 Formed to Fight tho Disease In Pub
 lio Message, Emphasizing Necessity
 of Prompt investigation of First sus-
 pieious Signs.
 Says Curtis E. Lakeman, executive secretary of the American Society For the Control of Cancer:
 Cancer can be prevented or cured and the needless sacrifice of thousands of lives can be stopped by educating the public as to the facts about this disease. Safety lies only in early rec ognition of the symptoms and prompt operation. Radium is useful in some cases, but 1t is not to be relied upon us a substitute for surgical treatment- the only known sure cure.
 This message of the hope to be found in early and competent treatment should be spread broadcast The need of supplying the public with better knowledge about the disease Is vividly shown by a newspaper clipping receiv- ed at the office of the American Society For the Control of Cancer. A woman wrote to the inquiry column of the newspaper that Il lump on her breast had been growing about year She said she had been told that kerosene rubbed on it was good for It. and had tried it without result except to cause inflammation, and so she was "very much worried" The answer published along with this letter advised her to 'bathe the spot thoroughly and apply a pad of antiphlogistian."
 The foremost surgeon of the world recently said in u public address that people wait. on the average. a whole year after discovering some suspicious symptom before they go to the op- erating table. Another surgeon stud fed his own records and those of nix Of the largest New York hospitals to throw light both on the frequency of cancer and the delay in seeking treat ment. Out of 12,345 surgical patients he found 542 cases of cancer. approxi- mately one in twenty-two, or 4.39 per cent. In sixty-ive cases of first ops eration for cancer he found that after discovery of tumor or after the first suspicious symptoms the thirty-five men had waited. on the average. t2.2 months before consulting the surgeon and the thirty women an average of 11.9 months.
 Delay Means Death.
 In like manner Dr. Winter of Koe- nigsberg. Prussia. the pioneer in the education of the public on cancer, un- alyzed 1,0ST records of operable cases and showed that sT per eeut of these patients could and should huve come to treatment much earlier .te .s.
 A preliminary study of the records kept at the hospital and laboratories of one of the largest American centers of medical education shows that the chances of a permanent cure, if oper- ation. be resorted to promptly. are very high. 1t shows equally that these< chances decrease with every day of delay. And as the likelihood of cure becomes remote the immediate danger and damage of the operation become greater. That is to say, new and small cancer may be removed without much pain and without much mutila- ton, but an old and dispersed cancer leaves serious wound behind it.
 These records have already been nn- alyzed and tabulated for cancer of the lip, tongue and breast. The statement of results takes account of the condi- tions said to precede actual cancer, such as tobacco bllsters, white spots and sore places about the teeth. While A. .RF kE,RNa Nsk the bearing of such conditions on the development of true cancer, it cannot be denied that in many cases they seem to cause the disease.
 Tn operations on the tongue the fig ures show that the prompt removal of the "precancerous lesion" resulted in 100 per cent of cures. In the second stage-i. e., that of malignant warts complete removal was equally effec- tive. But when the actual figures of developed cancer were studied the pro- portion of cures dropped at once to 90 per cent.
 Cancer of the Breast.
 In cancer of the breast the danger of delay is equally apparent In the mild CT form, called adenocarclnoma, the percentage of cures fin all cases was 76, but in the late cases-l. e., those in which the cancerous nature of the tue nor was already obvious to the eye 1t was much less. In these early cases there is Il warning lump in the breast, but no outward sign of malig- nant tumor. In the more malignant forms of breast tumor the general per centage of cures dropped to 30 and in late cases to s. or one patient out of three. But even here the cures in early cases reached S5 per cent
 In operations for cancer of the lip