New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-16
Drug Treatment Used
on 200 in Five
Year Test
ALL BENEFITED
REPORT SHOWS
Cure May Result from
Experiments by New
Method

Marked success In the treatment Of
cancer by selenium is soon TO be an
nounced In medical publications by
DR.. Charles II. Walker, Of 327 West
Eighty-siIth Street Selenium is a
powerful chemical which, taken inter
nally, in capsules. has relieved suffer
ing In many cases and in others has
effected an apparent cure.
DR.. Walker, however, does not say
he has found a cure, but he firmly be-
lieves the treatment is worthy of q
thorough trial.
81 have treated In the last FIVE years
more than two hundred cases." DR..
Walker said to Tribune reporter yes
terday. "In many of them diagnosis
had shown beyond all question the pa
tient was a cancer victim, and in few
was there much ground for doubt I
can safely say in no case was there a
total failure in favorable results from
the use Of selenium.
Believes Cure Was Made
Some Of tho patients were near
death when first saw them, and it was
possible to do nothing but relieve a
little Of their pain. In other cases,
said by specialists to be beyond help,
believe there has been q permanent
cure. II selenium will only relieve
pain it Is worth using, and IL it will
cure. the treatment should be thor
oughly investigated"
Sulfo-selene, a combination Of sui
phur and selenium, the compound DR..
Walker uses, was worked out In CO.
operation with Or. Frederick Klein, a
biological chemist, Of this city.
In 1911 DR.. Walker came TO the con-
clusion, upheld by eminent authorities
on cancer, the disease was not due to a
germ, but to certain peculiar condi-
tion in the body, which might be cor
rected by treatment with chemicals.
Experiments with selenium were be-
gun and have been continued the last
five years.
First Clew to Treatment
In a report published In "The Medi-
cal Record" in 1912 eminent surgeons
stated the remedy for cancer might
well be a chemical substance.
at has long been the opinion Of
thoughtful students Of the subject,
says the report, that local treatments
for cancer, however necessary as make
shifts, have been based on q miscon-
ception. 1t Is quite possible, for ex-
ample, that X-rays or the fulguration
treatment may benefit superficial can
Ger at its point Of origin, but the dan
ger Of such growths lies largely In
their spread to distant and inaccessible
vital organs, where local treatment Is
impossible.
1--WE believe il, therefore, automatic
that a scientific remedy for cancer shall
be one soluble in the blood, transmissi-
bic By the blood and lymph currents TO
all parts Of the body, and possessed Of
q selective affinity for the cells OF the
tumor to be destroyed.
Cancer No Germ Disease
"Such a remedy may quite conceiv-
ABLY be a chemical substance existing
in the outside world. and by happy ac-
cident discovered 70 have the desired
properties"
DR.. Francis Carter Wood, director Of
the Crocker Cancer Research Fund,
speaking on the laboratory study OF the
causes Of the disease at q meeting OF
the New York Academy of Medicine last
May. said It had been established. al
most beyond question, that cancer was
not a germ disease, nor in any way al
lied to germ diseases.
DR.. Klein, in 1910, recommended the
use of selenium acid in the treatment
Of cancer.
DR.. Wasserman subsequently an
nouneed he had found compound OF
selenium which reduced cancers OF
mice and rats, but in large doses killed
the animals. Others engaged IN re-
search work have been Unable 70 find a
form Of selenium that left healthy It's
sues uninjured. Another difficulty has
been that the administration OF the
drug led to saturstion and consequent
in the effects Of treatment.
Dieting 4 Necessary Aid
"Dr. Klein and myself have probably
not found the final chemical form IN
which the use Of selenium will be most
effective" said DR.. Walker. but we
hope TO. It's use must. OF course be
accompanied by the strict dieting In
evitabie in all treatments OF cancer.
1t is declared by medical authori-
tie, one of the greatest difficulties IN
tho way Of determining the actual value
of proposed cancer treatments. even
where several hundred cases are under
observation, o is the question OF dag
nosis. This can seldom be made with
absolute certainty unless the cancer
ous growth can be seen. In many cases
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