The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-05
HOLDS OUT HOPE
 IN CANCER GASES.
Danger In Small Wounds That
 Demand Quick Attention.
ENCOURAGING STATISTICS.

Formed fo Fight e7e Disease tn Fup- Iio Message, Emphasixirs Neeessity of Prompt investigation of First sus- < pieioue sisns.
 Says Curtis B.. 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 uponsas 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 vtvidly 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 pewspaper that lump on her breast had been growing about g 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 svery much worried' The answer published along with this letter advised her to 'sbathe the spot thoroughly and apply a pad of ntiphlogistian.'
 The foremost surgeon of the world recently said in 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 jed 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 1nent. 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-dve cases of first op- eration for cancer he found that after discovery of tuInor or after the first suspicious symptoms the thirty-nve men had waited, on the average, 12.2 months before consulting the surgeon and the thirty women an average of 11.9 months.
 Delay Means Death.
 In like manner pr, Winter of Koe- n1gsberg, Prussia, the pioneer in the education of the public on cancer, an aIyzed 1,OS7 records of operable cases and showed that ST per cent of these patients could and should have come to treatment much earlier.
 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 permanent cure, if oper- ation be resorted to promptly, are very high It 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 s much pain and without much mutila- tion, but an old and dispersed cancer leaves serious wound behind 1t
 These records have already been an- alyzed and tabulated for cancer of the lip, tongue and breast The statement of results takes account of the condi- lions said to precede actual cancer, such as tobacco blisters, white spots and sore places about the teeth. While there is a difference of opinion as to the bearing of such conditions on the development of true cancer, it cannot bey denied that in many cases they
 
 seem to cause the disease.
 In operations on the tongue the fig ures show that the prompt removal of the ssprecancerous 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 50 per cent.
 Cancer of the Breae+.
 In cancer of the breast the danger Of delay is equally apparent Tn the naild- CT form, called adenocarcinoma, the percentage of cures in all cases was 7e, but in the late casessi. e., those in which the cancerous nature of the tu- nor was aIresdy OBVIOUS to the eye Lit was much less In these early cases there is 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 36 and in late cases to S3, or one patient out of three. But even here the eures in early eases reached S5 per cent
 In operations for cancer of the lip the reports show 100 per cent of cures of cures after complete operation in The evidence so far collected on early cancer also gives an opportunity for a message to the people who seek help in the later stage of cancer. Although the chances of cure here are less, the disease in many instances is by no 1 means hopeless.