, 1934-12-24
Only a Quack Claims
Cure for Cancer
BY DE- MORhs FiSHBEIN
Editor, Journal Of the American Medical Association
and Of Hygeia. the Health Magazine

49, VI
II anyone tells you he can cure cancer, shun him
as a charlatan and a swindler.
There is no scientific evidence to show that any
serum, drug. or combination Of drugs will cure can
Ger. Today we stil say that the great hope in can
Ger is early diagnosis and surgical treatment care
fully associated with judicious use Of radium X-ray.
Nevertheless. various drugs have been injected,
caustic pastes have been applied. and similar methods
avoiding the use OF the knife, have been widely ex-
plotted by cancer cure promoters and swindlers for
many years.
When the American Association for the Control Of
Cancer tried some years ago to obtain applicants for
a prize. which is to be given to the one who first
develops a cure for cancer. $500 persons applied
But not one Of the cures offered was worth the
paper on which the description Of the technic was
printed.
There is, after all, a simple way to find out whether
a product offered as a cure for cancer Is worth
while. We know today the average duration Of life
Of the person with a cancer when the cancer is not
treated. and we know also the average duration Of
life following the application OF surgery. or use Of
radium and the X-ray.
We know enough 10 be certain that treatment Of
any considerable number OF people with any special
cure for cancer should show within a period Of five
years whether the product is worth while.
It Is safe TO say az this time that no one OF the
widely promoted cancer cures that has been offered
to the public during the last 20 years even slightly
resembles an actual cure.
The American Medical Association has assembled
in a pamphlet called Cancer Cures and Treatments"
the records Of some IS cancer charlatans who have
offered their methods TO the American people since
1900 and who attained sufficient notoriety to bring
them prominence in the public press or to cause q
considerable number Of inquiries to be sent to the
headquarters office.
These cancer cures include. for the most part.
cancer paStes which are caustic and which take off
as much living, healthy tissue as cancerous tissue
In many instances the paste itself Is largely respon-
sible for an untimely end.
In other instances, the method involves the use Of
injections, either OF innocuous mixtures Of water and
inert salts, or Of non-specific protein preparations
which bring about a severe reaction in the body Of
the patient and cause him to think that something
has been accomplished.
Introduction of radium gave rise TO a half dozen
radium quackeries said to be in some instances ra-
dunn impregnated fluids which we're to be taken
internally. It has now been established that radium
solutions taken internally, If they contain enough
radium, will harm the human body, and, II they do
not contain radium, are the purest ~quackery.
The development Of electrical devices has brought
about various heat machines and machines said TO
give an electrical discharge. which are also quack-
cries.
One Of the most serious aspects OF the quacks work
is his inSistence that his cure will not work if the
patient has already had radium treatment Thus
many a patient sacrifices time that might well be
devoted to semitic benefit 70 trifle with the charla-
tan's nostrums.