The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-03-11
Cancer Not Blood Disease

Cancer causes thousands of pre-
ventable 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 can
Ger patients even after discovering
some suspicious symptoms wait on
the average whole year before they
seek treatment. To control the dis
ease with our present knowlege the
first thing to do is to eliminate this
fatal delay. To do this is necessary
to understand why patients are so
loath to seek examination. A mis-
apprehension which constitutes one
reason for reluctance to consult a
physician in time, is the notion which
still prevails that cancer is a consti-
tutional disease caused by some poi
son in the blood. Those who hold
this mistaken opinion commonly be-
lieve that the disease is hereditary
and in a vague way they think there
must be some taint handed down
from one generation to another
which causes cancer to flourish In
<ceertain families. Such misappre-
hension 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 is the fact that cancer in the
early stages IS relatively painless.
Many a surgeon has wished that can
Ger in its early manifestations might
cause the sufferer half as much trou-
BILE as the toothache, in which case
the patient would surely be driven to
seek relief in time. Cancer is at first
a local growth and not general dis
ease of the system. This fact is
Of the utmost Importance, since it
holds out the high hope of cure if
the malignant growth is removed be-
fore it has time to spread to other
parts of the body. Cancer appears
in other places because small parti-
cles or cells are carried away from
the first site and start new growths
elsewhere. The great hope of cure
therefore lies in removing cancer en-
tirely from. the system before it has
a chance to spread from it's first foot
hold.
The reason why so many people
came to believe that cancer was
blood disease is because it was OBJ
served to come again in the 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 man
ner there must be some taint in the
blood. The trouble was that in ear
lier times cancer was not really cut
out. Surgeons then did the best
they knew how, but without the ad-
vantage of modern methods they
were unable successfully to extermi-
nate the disease even in its incipient
and local stage. This was principally
becausethey did not operate extern
sively enough. The microscope has
now shown US the paths by which
cancer cells start their invasion of
the body and modern surgeons are
repeatedly successful in removing
the disease once for all. Cancer is
not a blood disease, and there is no
conclusive evidence that it is heredi-
tary. Many efforts have been made
to show that the disease is transmit
ted from one generation to another
or that at least certain susceptible
ity to cancer is thus passed on. The
evidence on this point, however, re-
mains insufficient. On the other
hand, there is much statistical and
experimental evidence to show that
heredity plays a very small part, if
anv. in the development of cancer
American Medical Association Bulle-
tin.