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91
[1908
"But the practical man may ask—what good are all these new facts
and all this new literature ? As was recently asked of the director of a
cancer laboratory—how many cases of human cancer have you cured ?
"It may be suggested that it is rather early to ask this question.
Five years is a short period in medical history. It took nearly ten years
to perfect the antitoxin treatment of diphtheria, which was a comparatively
simple problem. However, attention may be drawn to the
following concrete results of the new era of experimental cancer research,
with the suggestion that they be compared, from the standpoint of
rational therapeutics, with the results of the thousand years immediately
preceding.
"1. It has been shown that the conditions permitting the growth of
cancer cells are adjusted with extreme delicacy, far more so than those
controlling the growth of bacteria. Haaland's cancer grew well in Berlin
mice, but at first would nardly grow at all in Copenhagen mice uf exactly
the same species—tne slight variations in the food rendered the animals
immune. It is at once apparent that a very slight variation in the
nutrition of the tissues may suffice to limit the growth of human cancers,
although previously no one had dared to nope for such a thing.
"2. The new facts ascertained about the growth of experimental cancer
have rendered it very improbable that the cause of cancer is a readily
transmissible parasite. They have thus narrowed immensely the field of
research, and largely set at rest the fear that this disease must be treated
as an infectious process, or that the cancer patient, like the consumptive,
is a menace to his neighbours.
"3. Cancer strains passed through animals acquire increased powers
of growth. By vaccinating an animal with a slowly growing tumor,
vaccination being followed by recovery, it has been possible to render the
animal immune to the most malignant forms of cancer. Thus has been
laid the basis of a preventative treatment of cancer.
"4. It has been found possible to render animals immune to cancer
by injection of extracts of many normal organs. This work has opened
up a new and hopeful field of search for a cure of established cancer and
for the control of recurrences after operation.
"5. In dogs malignant tumors in advanced stages have in several
consecutive cases been cured by bleeding the animal and transfusing into
its veins the blood of dogs previously rendered immune to this tumor.
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