Case I.—Miss T. M. M., aged 37, consulted me on March 23rd of this year, for a mass in the left breast which a surgeon of great eminence had diagnosed as cancer, and urged most strenuously an immediate operation, and from its rapid development had said that she would die within six months if not operated on. She had had a neurasthenic breakdown the preceding autumn, and for some months had now been under a very great nervous strain, with a father aged 71, who was slowly dying of Bright’s disease. Two years ago she had suffered severely from uricacidemia, for which she had dieted six months.
The mass in the left breast was noticed only a month or two previous to her visit and had increased rapidly; when seen there was a hard, lobulated mass about two inches in diameter, in the outer, upper quadrant of the left breast, attached to the puckered skin over an area of more than an inch; there were also a number of enlarged, hard axillary glands. There was considerable pain at times, which had been increased considerably by the rather rough handling of the surgeon.
She was placed on an absolutely vegetarian diet, following what I call the green card menu, which I gave you in my last lecture, and a mixture of acetate of potassium, nux vomica, fluid extract of cascara and fluid extract of rumex root, which I also mentioned to you at that time.
For eight months she has been under my constant observation every week or two, and the improvement in her general condition and in the breast tumor is very marked; you heard her say that she felt a thousand per cent better. Her color is excellent, she has held her weight, 153 pounds, which is a trifle above that called for by her height and age, and all this in spite of daily office work and very great trouble and anxiety in nursing her sick father for thirteen weeks, who died in October.
The breast, as you see, has still a lump in it, but it is soft and hardly half the original size, the area where the skin was attached has decreased, so that there is now only this slight dimpling or puckering, and the enlarged lymphatic glands in the axilla have disappeared.
It is impossible in a brief lecture to enter upon all the details of treatment followed out during these eight months, for they have been varied according to the principles laid down in these and the previous lectures. The former habitual constipation has been overcome and the urine, which exhibited a great shortage of solid constituents, with occasional indican, etc., has attained more nearly a normal character, and in various ways she has regained better metabolism. To accomplish all this there have been many remedies used from time to time to meet various indications, as are shown by my voluminous notes every week or two. I may add that the affected breast and axilla have been kept painted with ichthyol, 50 per cent solution in water, which for some years I have found to aid in the absorption of malignant lesions. The patient is not well, by any means, and it will be some months before the mass in the breast has entirely disappeared; but instead of being dead within the six months, as prophesied, she is as healthy, happy, and hearty a woman as one could wish, after eight months, under very adverse circumstances, without pain, not having lost a day from work, and with the tumor steadily diminishing.
I am often asked if the cure is permanent after this line of treatment? In answer I can only refer to the cases reported in my former lectures, where two were observed well after sixteen years and two after eleven years. I may add also that if there is recurrence, and if the principles which I have long advocated are correct, the recurrence would be due to the same causes which produced the original trouble, possibly a neglect of full treatment, and one would expect that a perfect following out of proper treatment would again check the trouble, which is more than can be said of surgery. Personally I have never seen recurrences, though, of course, this may have happened and the patient being discouraged may have yielded to the solicitation of friends and to the knife.
Case II.—Mrs. J. J. T., aged 38, was first seen August 11, 1914. She had been confined with her first child 4 months previously, but had not nursed the baby at all, and had no trouble with the breasts. Four weeks before her visit she had noticed a tumor in the upper left segment of the left breast, which had increased steadily, with considerable pain. When seen there was a mass the size of an egg, hard, and well defined, somewhat tender on manipulation, with some glandular enlargement in the axilla. She was placed on an absolutely vegetarian diet, with no coffee, and the same mixture as the preceding case, the bowels being constipated, and the breast was kept painted with the 50 per cent ichthyol, which was afterwards changed to iodid of lead in Hebra’s Diachylon Ointment. Later she took thyroid extract, also iron, etc., and maintained her weight and strength perfectly. The mass in the breast disappeared rather slowly, and it was not until just a year later that I find it recorded that the breast was perfectly normal, with no trace of the tumor, nor axillary adenopathy. She was again confined of a healthy child in June, 1916, and the surgeon who had made the original diagnosis of cancer reported the breast perfectly normal. Seen recently she still remains absolutely free from trouble.
Case III.—Mrs. I. T. G., aged 43, first noticed a lump in the left breast two weeks before her first visit, May 17, 1905; this had been diagnosed as cancer by at least four medical men, one of them a prominent surgeon in Hartford, who urged immediate operation. When seen there was a hard, sharply defined mass an inch and a half in diameter in the left breast, above the nipple; it gave pain and was painful on pressure. Beginning with the same treatment as the other cases mentioned the change in the tumor was most remarkable, and eight weeks later it was recorded that there was no trace of the tumor, that both breasts were alike. She was a large, flabby woman, weighing 207½ pounds, the kind who do so badly after operation. She maintained her treatment faithfully, with an absolute vegetarian diet, and when seen two years later weighed still 199 pounds, with no return of the breast trouble. She was seen last for quite another trouble five years and a half after her first visit, and the breast was found perfectly normal.
There is no necessity of illustrating this part of our subject further, but I wish to make a remark about this last case, especially in reference to the desirability of early treatment. We hear much from the advocates of the knife that it should be used early, and yet we all meet cases where lumps are removed from the breast almost as soon as they are discovered and yet there is recurrence. Early dietary and medical treatment, in this instance two weeks after discovery of the lump, was observed to be followed by perfect freedom for five and a half years, and beyond question permanently, if she continues to live along proper lines.