Cancer: Its Cause and Treatment, Volume 2 (of 2)Bulkley, Lucius Duncan
Science
Cancer: Its Cause and Treatment, Volume 2 (of 2)
Bulkley, Lucius Duncan
Cancer
Cancer of the skin presents the best operative statistics of any region,
and the claim is made that all cases are curable if operated on early
enough and rightly. While this is not wholly true, it is certain that if
all lesions which one chooses to call “pre-cancerous” are thoroughly
extirpated very early, and included in the statistics, the percentage of
cures can be reported as very high. So that it may be said that, taking
all statistics together, including very small as well as large lesions,
the favorable results, that is permanent cures of lesions which can be
truly called cutaneous epithelioma, may run as high as 75 per cent. But
against this is to be set the fact that a very large share of these
cases, taken early and by competent persons, are equally amenable to
cure by lighter measures, without the horrible disfigurement which one
sometimes sees after purely surgical procedures.
Cancer of the lip, when taken early and treated radically, including
gland extirpation, also yields a fairly satisfactory result, depending,
of course, on the stage of the disease, or amount of involvement of
tissue and glands, and the completeness of the operation. But while some
operators have claimed 75 per cent of cures, Hertzler makes the
percentage of permanent cures not much over 25 per cent. And here again,
if taken very early and treated correctly, many of these cases yield
without the knife, whereas very late cases may be practically
inoperable.
When, however, we come to cancer within the mouth, the tongue, etc., it
is quite a different story, and the end results of surgery are commonly
unsatisfactory. Certain European surgeons have reported an operative
mortality in cancer of the tongue as high as 36 per cent, while
recurrences are the rule, and really permanent cures the very great
exception.
As before stated, it is extremely difficult to give any true and
accurate estimate of the real end results from operative surgery as
ordinarily performed in cancer affecting various regions. The obvious
reason of this is that most of our statistics are from those who are
especially occupied with the disease under most favorable hospital
facilities, and also certain statistics may be from selected cases;
moreover, operators are naturally inclined to report mainly satisfactory
results, while the other aspect of the case is seldom presented. Aside,
then, from superficial epitheliomata, about the only locations in which
there is even a fair chance for the patient under the knife are the
breast, uterus, and rectum, and for these large statistics are
available; but again these are unsatisfactory, as they vary so greatly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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