Page 4 Advertisements Column 4

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2005, 14 February 1907, Page 4

THE NEW CANCER TREATMENT. THE TONIC OF HOPE. LONDON, Doc! 37. Considerable) attention is how being directed to tlio ellicacy of trypsin in the treatment of oancor. The public will bo well advised to hesitate before bailing trypsin as an infallible euro for tins dreadful diseaso until far more oxtonded medical observations liavo boon made on this subject. From timo to timo a new cure for cancer is announced; oaeli one in turn is reported to liavo cured numbers of advanced and apparently hopeless cases of tlio disease. the “euro” is talked about and written about; it has its day and ceases to bo. Coley’s fluid, Schmidt’s serum, Doyen’s serum, violet loaves, have all boon weighed and found wanting as a treatment for the disease, lint the scourge of cancer remains, and all over the world the greatest surgeons and sicnotists are at work ceaselessly trying to cope with it. While tlio disease remains lncurablo, hope is naturally raised by the announcement of each now treatment, but tlio remembrance of tlio last disappointment suggests caution, and discounts extravagant expectation. During the past week a groat deal has been' heard of tlio trypsin treatment which has been introduced by Dr. Board, of Edinburgh. _ Trypsin, it should bo said, is a ferment formed by the pancreas of sweetbread. It is the most powerful digestive fluid in Ibe body, being much more rapid ami completo in its pork titan tlio gastric fluid secreted in tlio stomneh.

Discovery of tlio Troatir»ont. Cancer, so far ns medical men can tell at present, is accompanied by the union of tlio white corpuscles of tlio hlood with the cells in the diseased organ. This unnatural union H followed l).v rapid and uncontrollable multiplication of tlio diseased colls, which invade and destroy everything they come across l)r. Hoard found that some cells in the embryo which resembled cancer colls were digested, and therefore destroyed by trypsin. This suggested to him that trypsin might also be used to destroy the cells forming the cancerous growth. , _ , Dr. ’Morton, of the New York Post Graduate Medical School, has employed trypsin for that purpose, and lie believes it has been successful. It might be thought that this was not a matter for anything but for certainty; cither the cancer cases treated with trypsin have 1 een cured o'.' they have not. But most doctors have mot with cases where the cancerous tissue ceased to grow for a time, and oven appeared to become smaller. Hut this cessation of growth is only for a time; before long tlia cancer appears again and relentlessly spreads. Hope, however, is the best of tonics, and the employment of a new remedy is itself often followed by a temporary improvement, so great is the influence of mind over body. I can recall a startling example in my own experience. A woman was suffering from cancer of tlio stomach, and I hoped that it might bo possible to remove the cancerous tissue by an operation. The operation was undertaken, but the growth was found to have thrust its roots far deeper than was 'bought. The case was hopeless, and the wound was closed without any attempt being made to remove the cancer. Yet that woman imprered wonderfully. She gained ip. u eight and strength, and she could digest her food again. , , . But one day she put her band under the bandage—tlio cancer was still there. Her hopes were shattered, and Ml improvement ceased That is why a new ‘'cure must be tried for a long time and by many doctors before it car. be acCC Mi a in, there is always the doubt as' to whether the disease in some i atients is cancer at all unless the microscope can be used on the oYowtli. This has been done in some at least of the cases treated by trypHow Trypsin is Obtained.

So much for the difficulties besetting the attempt to arrive at the value of any treatment for cancer. Ncnv for the speoial difficulties in the case of trypsin. . The trypsin which is used at piesent in the treatment of cancer cases is obtained from the pancreas ot four-fee,ted animals which have been killed for food. The prancreas taken from the animal’s body after slaughter is minced and the trypsin extracted from it. The trypsin in cancer cases is used either in the form of a, fluid or a pen dor. ~ .... It may ho said at once that it. is inconceivable that trypsin itself can do any good unless it can be directly applied to or injected into die cancerous growth. ’There is no evidence that trypsin can be absorbed by the body tissues if it is taken through the mouth. Moreover, if it did get into the circulation, the blood contains an antidote that would rapidly destiny it. Yet I know of a lady who is at the present moment being treated m London with trypsin, which is being given through the mouth for «i cl cep internal cancer. She, however, believes she can feel the cancer is becoming smaller. , , , Another difficulty is that trypsin is an unstable substance and rapidly destroys itself. . , Supposing it were injected into the blood circulation in sufficient doses to overcomo tlieso difficulties, it is quite an oven chance whether it would attack the cancer or the healthy organs. , . , It has boon conclusively proved that trypsin can destroy living healthy organs. Every physiologist brows what extraordinary safeguards Nature takes before letting loose trypsin in the body, even for digestive purposes. . . Briefly, she makes it impossible tor this substance to bo set free for digestion, except just when and where it is needed. As soon as its work is done it is rapidly got rid < There remains to no coi’S'.deied tlie case where the trypsin can be applied to the cancer itself. This practically limits it to external cancers or cancers in the threat. Warning Against False Hopes.

It is, of course, possible that for cancer cases trypsin may bo far secporior to anything that has yet been used; but it must be insisted on tluiu it is far too early to be sure of that for the improvement that hope itself produces, allowing also for the mysterious way in which cancer patients spontaneo lsly improve in health for a time, it would be rash to express the opinion that we have jeon the conquest of cancer. . It would indeed bo cruel to sulterors and their friends thus to speak before we know if their hopes Mill not bo dashed to the ground again, as they have been so often dashed ' ,C jf r a cancer can he removed by operation it should be done; on tins, all doctors, including the advocates of the trypsin treatment, are agreed. For the cases that cannot be operated on this new method will donbt'°l>octors are ready to try anything that holds out a reasonable hope of an improvement, let alone cuie, m such a terrible disease as cancer. Everything will he done under, proper conditions that science can suggest, and the public can rest assured that no considerations of medical etiquette will ho allowod to stand in tho way. . . Already the trypsin treatment is being employed in two hospitals in Loudon at least, and arrangements are being made in some o-liors for it to be put into use m suitable cases.

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