And this from a physician in Seattle, received a few days ago:
“Has your office any knowledge of the cancer cure devised by Dr. William F. Koch, Ph.D., M.D., of Detroit? He published an article on it in the Medical Record, Oct. 30, 1920.... I enclose copy of letter received by one of our patients from his ‘western representative’ which reads like pure quackery. I do not find Dr. Koch’s name in either the A. M. A. or Polk’s medical directories.”
The letter referred to in the last inquiry as coming from Dr. Koch’s “western representative” was addressed to a woman who had written to Dr. Koch with reference to his alleged cancer cure. The letter, dated Jan. 19, 1921, was signed “Chas. L. Tisdale, 1898 Geary Street, San Francisco.” It read:
“Dear Madam:—Your letter of January 10th written to Dr. Koch of Detroit in reference to his cancer cure has been sent to me by Dr. Koch. I am the western representative of Dr. Koch and am giving the treatments with his remedy. I am now treating 14 cases here with some most wonderful results. The amount of the remedy that Dr. Koch can supply me with is limited and it is a very expensive substance. None of it can be sent to Seattle or any other place for I have only enough to treat the cases that are constantly presenting themselves here. If you could come to San Francisco and have the money to pay a reasonable fee, say enough to pay for the remedy, I would be very glad to do everything I can for you.
“The results that have already shown in many of these cases warrant me in believing that almost any case of cancer can be cured if the treatment is persisted in.”
According to our records, Dr. William F. Koch of Detroit was born in 1885. Some years ago he graduated in chemistry and for some time held the position of professor of physiology and physiologic chemistry at the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery. In 1918, Dr. Koch received his degree in medicine from this same college. Less than a year after his graduation, Dr. Koch declared that he had “developed a real specific cure for cancer.” In the Detroit Medical Journal for July, 1919, there appeared a brief article by William F. Koch, entitled “A New and Successful Treatment and Diagnosis of Cancer.” A more extensive article bearing the same title was published in the New York Medical Journal of Oct. 30, 1920.
As a result of the publicity that was given the Koch treatment, the Wayne County (Detroit) Medical Society appointed a committee to investigate the treatment. Its first report appeared in the Bulletin of the society for Dec. 22, 1919. Briefly, this report said that the Board of Health of Detroit had placed at the disposal of the committee twelve beds in a local hospital with the necessary special nurses and everything else required free of charge. The committee sent certain patients to the hospital; and there were also some other patients recommended by different physicians as proper cases for treatment. There were nine altogether. After going over the cases carefully, the committee found some in which the diagnosis was doubtful. There were five cases, however, of undoubted cancer, a positive diagnosis having been made from specimens and microscopic examination. The management and treatment of these patients were turned over to Dr. Koch.
Dr. Koch seems to have raised certain objections and to have made certain criticisms. He also insisted that he ought to have some representative on the committee. The committee offered to put on any and all he would name. He failed to name any. The committee reported further that Dr. Koch was very negligent in his treatment of the patients and finally, on November 26, the committee met with Koch and went over all the cases with him. At that time he gave the patients injections and promised to attend to the treatment regularly in the future. According to the report, he saw the patients only once more (three days later) and then did not come near them again. As the patients became disgusted with the neglect, some of them left and the committee sent the rest home and closed its connections with the investigation of the subject.
In the same issue of the Bulletin of the county society in which this committee’s report was published, the editor of the Bulletin stated that from all sections of the country inquiries were coming relative to the treatment and “from long distances patients are coming to Detroit to be ‘cured’ of cancer.” The editor further stated: “It is reported that Dr. Koch is treating many patients, promising much and charging well.” To this Dr. Koch retorted that only about 30 per cent. of his patients had “contributed.” The rest were treated free.