The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-11
MAYO SAYS CAUSE OF
CANCER Is UNKNOWN
Tells Surgeons Delays Of Pa
tients in Seeing Doctor
Hampers Cures.
USE OF KNIFE rs URGED
DR.. Wood Of Croker Fund Says
Radium Failures Outnumber
Cures 100 to 1.
USE OF KNIFE rs URGED

Or. william J. Mayo Of Rochester,
Mimi. president OF the American Surg!-
cal Association. said In a symposium on
the campaign against cancer held last
night at the Academy OF Medicine. II
West Forty-third street. under the aus
p!ces OF the American Society for the
Control OF Cancer. that all that the
common people need know about cancer
Is that 1t is a local disease, that when
local 1t is durable and that they should
60 TO their physicians In time.
Dr. Mayo said that ten years ago. when
an organization similar to the American
Society for the Control OF Cancer was
started in regard TO tuberculosis. the
public was equally ignorant concerning
that disease. but they were hungry for
information. There Is hardly a people
to-day. he said. who do not know what
to 90 in the treatment Of tuberculosis or
preventive measures.
III We can accomplish so much with
cancer that people can get rudimentary
knowledge" he said many lives may be
saved But II We do not know the cause
OF cancer--I do not-how will we teach
them
Dr. Mayo told about the can
Ger in the core of the horns of
cattle. where holes have been drillei
to run ropes through. and the betel
nut cancer of the mouth OF India.
where nearly 80 per cent. Of cancer IS In
the pocket of the mouth where people
carry the betel nut.
This. he continued. suggested as a
prophylaxis changes of habit that would
reduce the local lesion or irritation.
Delay In Seeking Advice.
He said that the average man doesn't
believe that cancer can he cured and
many patients admit when they finally
go to a physician that they are aware
Of the fact that they have had the
disease FOR year.
When a physician says 10 his patient.
why didn't you come 10 me before 8"
he continued, the reply will be. What 5
the use% Unfortunately too cancer car
iies with II a certain stigma, as in tuoer-
culosis. and when a cure has been effected
the patient doesn't like TO SPEAK about 1t.
l th!nk that certain ideas can be presented
~ force to the people and by carrying out
a very simple technique II would be pos
| sibe 10 get cancer In a durable stage
Dr. Mayo called attention to the fact
that he had been quoted in newspaper
yesterday as saying that meat eaters are
more susceptible to cancer than others, an
absurd statement which. he declared. he
had never made
Dr. Francis Carter Wood. director of
cancer research OF the George Croker
Special Research Fund. Columbia Uni
vcrsity. speaking on The Nature OF Can
Ger and Its Cure" said.
Throughout the long period Of the
dark ages scattered papers show that
while observations were being made OF
cancer. they knew little more than the
Greeks only with the Improvement in
the microscope was any important adj
vance made over the Greek and Roman
days. II is not difficult TO sum UP what
has been learned by such observations.
First. We have found that there are
/ many varieties OF cancer.
Second. that among these varieties ara
not only tumors. which are always ana
rapidly fatal. but also cancers of slow
growth--so SLOW as to be almost harm
less.
Third. that the nature OF tumors can
only be positively determined by the
microscope.
Urges Knife, Not Radium.
Fourth. tina, even this useful instru-
ment does not always enable us to say
/ Just how bad tumor may turn out t.
be
Fifth. that one kind of cancer goes
throughout the body In the blood vessels
tissues in small channels known as lymph
vessels We have learned nothing. there
| fore. about the real cause OF cancer or its
actual nature
Lastly. We have found that the only
/ way TO cure one OF the bad varieties OF
cancer Is to cut II out at the earliest
moment We have learned nothing about
the real cause OF cancer or It's actual
nature"
Every cancer which can ne operated
upon must be so treated. and no operable
cancer should be treated by radium.
Operate first. then. II not possible to
operate first. treat with tho N-rays or
radium ard then operate ~ the tumor i'm
proves. Rad!um does not permanently
1 cure internal cancer. 1t may check the
growth for while hut sooner or later
| Il comes back
Popular belief In radium Is based on
the fact hat only the occasional cures are
heard from. not the failures and ! can
assure you this; the failures outnumher
/ the cures 100 to