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
Unfortunately it must be acknowledged that many claims, quack and other,
have been put forth in times past for remedies and measures which would
control or remove, and even cure, the disease in all stages. But the
failure of each in turn has very naturally discouraged many from
accepting any new proposition, and the profession and laity have almost
given up the hope for a real cure of cancer.
In the present instance, however, there is no attempt to present or urge
any single means or measure as a cure-all for cancer. But there has been
an endeavor to study the fundamental causes of the disease along
biochemical lines, and to meet intelligently the errors found. We have
seen cancer developing more and more as the ill effects of modern
civilization have manifested themselves, and have found that its
increase has kept pace coincidently with and even exceeded that shown by
certain other diseases, cardiac, arterial, and renal, which are
recognized as due to errors of living; and there is every reason to
believe that cancer is of the same origin. In a later lecture I shall
hope to show how some of these errors may be overcome, with the
consequent cessation of the cancerous process and even the disappearance
of the malignant lesion already formed.
RECURRENT CANCER represents only the continuance and further operation
of the internal or systemic causes which induced the formation and
development of the first lesion, and are a natural sequence therefrom.
Otherwise why should there be such an almost universal tendency of the
disease to redevelop either in the same or other localities? It is
granted, of course, that the very complete ablation of an early tumor
and its surroundings removes a focus in which disease has started, and
from which is generated a hormone or poison which tends to further lower
the vitality of the blood. But this does not by any means reach the
basic cause, as we saw in the former lectures.
In estimating, however, the real value of an operative procedure, which
has seemed to be successful for some period of time, we must also
inquire if there has not been some other cause which may account for the
absence of further cancerous deposits? It is more than likely, in
successful cases, that the previous occurrence of the disease and the
fear of recurrence have so modified the life of the patient in many
respects, that the primal cause is more or less removed. It is
incredible to believe that the mere removal of the portion of tissue in
which the systemic disorder has localized can forever prevent a new
focus from developing. As well might we expect that the removal of a
gouty toe, a tubercular deposit, or a late syphilitic gumma would
inhibit further manifestations of the disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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