Case VIII.—Mrs. H. F. J., aged 52, weighing 102 pounds, was first seen August 3, 1916. She had been under an absolutely vegetarian diet (green card) since July 17th, and was feeling better than before. She had had three children, 27, 25, and 16 years of age, the menses had been regular up to April 15, then nothing up to July 1st, when there was a clotted flow, checked by treatment, which had returned in two weeks, with pain, after an auto ride. On July 14th she was examined by two physicians who found cancer of the cervix, which was confirmed by Dr. Janeway on July 31st, who reported “cancer of the cervix and vaginal canal, with some cauliflower excrescence; the uterus was not much enlarged or fixed.” She received one application of radium on August 1st, 300 mil. Curies to the canal, and 120 to the cervix, for 12 hours.
She was given the same mixture as Mrs. F. L. A. and the “green card diet,” and the injection of carbolic acid and biborate of soda. Briefly, to report further, on September 30th it was recorded that she had improved every day; she had gained steadily, and again on September 30th that she had improved every day. She had a good appetite and was getting back her strength, and seemed “quite like herself again.”
On October 20th Dr. Janeway reported that Mrs. H. F. J. was “free from disease, although the healing is not quite complete.” This is, of course, a very recent case, but the progress has been so satisfactory that in view of the former case and the results so often obtained when all proper measures are carefully carried out, there is reasonable expectation that this will also result in a cure.
I will not dwell longer on carcinoma, though if I had time I could relate many other interesting and instructive cases, showing satisfactory results of treatment. My experience has naturally been principally with the disease as it affects the breast, and many of the patients affected elsewhere I have seen in consultation, or only a few times, though some have been faithful to prolonged treatment.
But if the thesis which I have tried to establish in these and my former lectures is correct, then sooner or later we will be able to apply the same principles, more fully developed and more perfectly adjusted, to cancer in other locations. And as the public and profession are better educated along these lines patients will apply earlier, and the pre-cancerous constitutional relations will be recognized and treated before the cancerous mass has gained such headway. There can be little doubt but that the same principles of treatment and prophylaxis apply equally to the cancerous process wherever the primary lesion has first developed.
Sarcoma.—Of the 36 cases of sarcoma, of various types and in different situations, which enter into our list of malignant neoplasms, very few can be mentioned as illustrations of the value of dietary and medicinal treatment; many of them were seen only in consultation, or once or twice, and it is very difficult for those afflicted with such affections to be persuaded of the value of prolonged internal treatment when surgery apparently offers such brilliant immediate results.
But there is one patient with sarcoma of the upper jaw, whom you saw a while ago in an ulcerative condition, with a great hole in the cheek and a cavern within, whose improvement is so phenomenal that I now present her to you again to-day, as she is about to leave the hospital, after a little over four months’ stay.
Case IX.—Miss R. L., aged 19, entered the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, in my service, July 24th, 1916, weighing 89½ pounds. She had formerly weighed 120. About three years ago a small lump developed beneath a pigmented mole which had long existed, an inch or so below the right eye. This grew rapidly until it was about an inch in diameter, and was movable and painless. About January 1st a tooth in the right upper jaw became loose and three teeth were extracted; a radiograph was taken, and she was advised hospital treatment. She then entered another hospital and the gum was incised and radium applied for 18 hours on March 1, 1916. After this operation the face became swollen and very painful, and an extensive operation was performed in May, the right upper maxilla being removed, together with the tumor. Four weeks before entering the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital a pin hole opening was noticed in the scar on the cheek, which increased in size up to the time of admission. She remained in that hospital until she came to us. The microscopic examination of the portions removed showed the disease to be sarcoma.
On entering the hospital there was an opening in the right cheek something over an inch in diameter with ulcerated edges, and a cavity extending down to the tongue, the superior maxilla having been removed surgically. From the upper margin of the opening there was a mass of dead bone hanging, nearly three quarters of an inch long by half an inch wide. The interior of the cavity presented a mass of ulceration, giving forth a foul odor. She was thin, pale, and anemic with 85 per cent hemoglobin and 3,620,000 red blood corpuscles.
She was placed on an absolutely vegetarian diet (green card) and began with the same mixture as the cases of carcinoma mentioned. The cavity and opening were kept packed with absorbent cotton, saturated with the following solution: ℞ Acidi Carbolici ℨss, Listerine ℥i, Liquor sodæ chlorinatæ ℥i, Glycerin ℥ss, Aquæ hydrogenii dioxidi ad ℥iv, M., changed several times daily. Under this treatment there was almost from the first a remarkable change in her condition. The discharge ceased shortly and also the foul odor. Within a few weeks the cavity and edges of the opening showed a healthy condition and evidences of cicatrization could be seen. The tongue of dead bone, which was soaked several times daily with muriatic acid, separated entirely within three months, leaving a healthy granular surface. By the end of four months the entire edge of the opening on the face had cicatrized perfectly, and the interior appeared in a healthy condition, with no ulceration whatever, as you saw when she was presented the second time, a few weeks ago.