Cancer: Its Cause and Treatment, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Lucius Duncan Bulkley

Many observers have found the nitrogenous disintegration very imperfect in cancer cases, and oxyproteic acids are increased and even that in very early cancer. An increase of amino-acid nitrogen was found by Reid in practically every case studied. Others have found an increase in colloid nitrogen, to more than double the normal amount, and also increased elimination of xanthin and urinary ammonia; so that all observers testify to a disturbed nitrogen partition in cancer. The elimination of urea is certainly greatly diminished, even in early stages and when on a full diet, as I have almost invariably observed.

The sulphur partition is also found to be imperfect, in new and old cancer cases, and even a great increase in the urinary discharge of sulphates is constantly noticed in my analyses. Associated with these errors in the nitrogenous and sulphur element is the very common and persistent increase of indican, showing stasis in the small intestine, with bacterial putrefaction.

Imperfect intestinal elimination is constantly observed in cancer cases, both habitually and in the very early, formative period, and also later, even before any recourse to morphin, which, of course, heightens the trouble. In recording the statements of these patients I have been so struck with the almost invariable history of constipation before the first appearance or suspicion of the cancer that I cannot help feeling very strongly the possibility that the toxins produced by the millions of microörganisms, generated through intestinal stasis and fecal putrefaction, play a great part in the production of that blood dyscrasia which culminates in the formation of the malignant new growth.

I mentioned to you last year that in hundreds of tests of the saliva in cancer patients the reaction was found to be acid almost invariably, until corrected by dietary and other treatment. I have this test made and recorded daily, half an hour before meals and half an hour after meals, on my cancer patients in the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital. I have also the urine volumetrically analyzed each week, and the results all tabulated in columns on the history sheet, so that the changes may be compared weekly, in regard to each constituent, as treatment progresses. The same is done with the weekly studies on the blood, which I hope to present in full before long.

I think, gentlemen, that from what I have said you can see that the medical aspects of cancer loom up pretty large, and yet we are only beginning to study the disease along these lines. We see, thus, that cancer is not primarily a surgical affection, and that the mere ablation of an offending portion of the body which has become diseased can never preclude a new portion from becoming affected, or prevent a recurrence in the same location; indeed, this often seems to be stimulated and increased by the trauma and by the deranged lymphatic and vascular circulation caused by the operation and the dissemination of actively growing cancer cells through these channels. This will appear more fully later when we come to study the increasing mortality of cancer during these later years of active surgery, and when we come to analyze the actual reports of operative procedures.

I hope, gentlemen, that by these lectures I may succeed in satisfying your minds that if anything is to be done towards staying the steadily rising frequency and increasing mortality of cancer, it must be by carefully wrought out medical means, and not by the knife.

LECTURE II
INFLUENCE OF SEX, AGE, OCCUPATION, RACE, CLIMATE, AND FOOD ON CANCER

While cancer is no respecter of persons, and affects all, rich and poor, old and young, male and female, there are some interesting features regarding the disease as it occurs under various conditions which are worthy of consideration.

We have seen in the former lecture that cancer is not a definite something, from without, that attacks the human frame, but that it is only a faulty development and action of certain body cells, which were once normal, with a steady decline in bodily health which tends to a fatal issue in a very large proportion of those once affected with the disease.

We have seen that the cancer patient, both in the very earliest stages and during the whole period of the disease, gives evidence of departures from the ideal normal life, and presents functional disorders of various organs, with derangements of metabolism; these point to errors of nutrition, which latter are of significance in connection with the development and continuance of the malignant disease. The conclusion offered was that cancer is a medical affection, due to systemic causes, and that the simple surgical excision of a certain diseased portion cannot be expected to check or remove such a malady, or to prevent recurrence. And this has been abundantly demonstrated by the history of the disease, with its steadily increasing mortality under increasingly active surgical treatment during the last fifteen years, as was shown in my former lectures and will be further illustrated later.