The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-06-23
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 the Disease In Pub
lie Message, Emphasizing Necessity
of Prompt investigation of First Sus-
pieious Signs.

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 it is not to be relied upon as
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 wildly
shown by newspaper clipping receiv-
1 ed at the Office of the American Society
| For the Control of Cancer A woman
/ wrote to the inquiry column of the
newspaper that a lump on her breast
had been growing about a 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 a public address that
people wait on the average, whole
year after discovering some suspicious
symptom before they go to the OPP
Grating table. Another surgeon stud
led his own records and those of six
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, approx
mately one in twenty-five. or 4.39 per
cent. In sixty-five cases of first OPP
Grafton for cancer he found that after
discovery of tumor or after the first
. suspicious symptoms the thirty-five
men had waited. on the average, 49,
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, an
: alyzed LOST records of operable cases
. and showed that 81 per cent of these
9 patients could and should have come
: to treatment much earlier.
A preliminary study of the record,
kept at the hospital and Laboratories
!, of one of the largest American center
i Of medical education shows that tin
chances of permanent cure. if oper
is alton be resorted to promptly. are yer.
Il high. 1t shows equally that theS
r chances decrease with every day o
d delay. And as the likelihood of cur
e becomes remote the immediate DANCE
e and damage of the operation becom
q greater. That is to say. new an
= small cancer may be removed withou
much pain and without much. mutilG
It ton, but an old and dispersed canoe
II leaves n serious wound behind it.
n These records have already been III
$ alyzed and tabulated for cancer of til
up, lOlISu TIE anu DEedSl. he SldlpIlCI
- of results takes account of the cond
= tons said to precede actual canoe
such as tobacco blsters, white spot
q and sore places about the teeth. Viii
=, there is a difference of opinion as [
T. the bearing of such conditions on I'll
development of true cancer, it cam,
be denied that in many cases the
. seem to cause the disease.
- In operations on the tongue the fl
- ures show that the prompt removal
:. the ''precancerous lesion" resulted
70 100 per cent of cures In the secor
m stage-i. e., that of malignant warts
re complete removal was equally effe
Iii tive. But when the actual figures
he developed cancer We're studied the pr
portion of cures dropped at once to
ON per cent.
Iel Cancer of the Breast.
~ In cancer of the breast the danger
no delay is equally apparent. In the mil
err form, called adenocarcinoma. Il
percentage of cures in all cases w
ace T6, but in the late cases-i e.. those
our which the cancerous nature of the
49, NOR WIS alrpafly OhviouS to tha owe