Part 53

“But is it true that any lump in a woman’s breast is cancer?” asked Mrs. Sharpless.

“No; it’s a lie; a damnable lie, circulated by that quack to scare foolish women into his toils. Most of such lumps are non-malignant growths. This is true, though: that any lump in a woman’s breast is suspicious. It may be cancer; or it may develop into cancer. The only course is to find out.”

“How?”

‘“With the knife.”

“Isn’t that rather a severe method for a symptom that may not mean anything?”

“Not too severe, considering the danger. Whatever the lump may be, it has no business there in the breast, any more than a bullet has. If it is only a small benign tumor, the process of taking it out is very simple, and there is nothing further to do. While the patient is still under the anaesthetic, a microscopical examination of the tissue, which can be made in a few minutes in a well-equipped hospital, will determine whether the growth is malignant. If so, the whole breast is taken off, and the patient, in all probability, saved. If not, sew up the wound, and the subject is none the worse. Much the better, in fact, for the most innocent growth may develop cancer by irritation. Thirty per cent, or more, of breast cancers develop in this way.”

“But irritation alone won’t cause cancer, will it?” asked Mrs. Clyde, her restlessly inquiring mind reaching back, as was typical of her mental processes, toward first causes.

“No. There must be something else. What that something is, we don’t know. But we are pretty certain that it doesn’t develop unless there is irritation of some kind.”

“Isn’t cancer a germ disease?”

“Nobody knows. Some day we may—probably shall—find out. Meantime we have the knowledge of how to prevent it.”

“How to prevent a disease you don’t know the nature of?” said Mrs. Sharpless incredulously. “That sounds like nonsense.”

“Does it? What about smallpox? We haven’t any idea of what smallpox really is; but we are able to control it with practical certainty through vaccination.”

“Doctors don’t vaccinate for cancer,” remarked the practical-minded old lady.

“They have tried serums, but that is no use. As I said, the immediate occasion of cancer is irritation. There is overwhelming proof that an unhealing sore or irritation at any point is likely to result in the development of a cancer at that point, and at least a highly probable inference that, without such irritation, the disease would not develop.”

“Then why not get rid of the irritation?”

“Ah, there’s the point. That’s where the tremendous life-saving could be effected. Take a very simple instance, cancer of the lip. In a thousand cases recorded by one of the Johns Hopkins experts, there wasn’t one but had developed from a small sore, at first of innocent nature. It isn’t too much to say that this particular manifestation of cancer is absolutely preventable. If every person with a sore on the lip which doesn’t heal within three weeks were to go to a good surgeon, this hideous and defacing form of tumor would disappear from the earth. As for carcinoma of the tongue, one of the least hopeful of all varieties, no careful person need ever develop it. Good dentistry, which keeps the mouth free of jagged tooth-edges, is half the battle. The other half is caution on the part of smokers. If a white patch develops in the mouth, tobacco should be given up at once. Unless the patch heals within a few weeks, the patient should consult a physician, and, if necessary, have it removed by a minor operation. That’s all there is to that.”

“But if the irritant sore is internal?” inquired Mrs. Clyde.

“To the watchful it will give evidence of its presence, usually in time. If it is in the intestines or stomach, there is generally some uneasiness, vague, perhaps, but still suspicious, to announce the danger. Surgical records covering a long period show that eighty per cent of stomach cancers were preceded by definite gastric symptoms of more than a year’s duration. If it is in the uterus, there are definite signs which every woman ought to be taught to understand. And here, to go back to the matter of cure, even if the discovery isn’t made until cancer has actually developed, there is an excellent chance in the early stages. Cancer of the stomach used to be sure doom to a hideous death. Now, taking the cases as they come, the desperate chances with the early cases, more than a quarter are saved in the best surgical hospitals. Where the growth is in the womb or the intestines, with reasonably early discovery, a generous half should be repaired and returned to active life as good as new.”

“That doesn’t seem possible,” said Mrs. Sharpless flatly.

“Simply because you’ve been steeped in the fatalism which surrounds cancer. That fatalism, which is so hard to combat, is what keeps women from the saving hope of the knife. ‘I’ve got to die anyway,’ they say, ‘and I’m not going to be carved up before I die.’ And so they throw away what chance they have. Oh, if only I had control of the newspapers of this city for one day a week or a month,—just for a half-column editorial,—what a saving of life I could effect! A little simple advice in straight-out terms would teach the people of this community to avoid poor Mrs. Westerly’s fate.”

“And drive ‘em all into the hands of the doctors,” said Mrs. Sharpless shrewdly. “A fine fattening of fees for your trade, young man.”

“Do you think so? Do you think that cancer ever fails to come to the physician at last? And do you think the fee is less because the surgeon has to do twice the amount of work with a hundredth of the hope of success?”

“No-o-o,” admitted the old lady, with some hesitancy; “I didn’t think of it in that light.”

“Few do. Oh, for the chance to teach people to think straight about this! Publicity is what we need so bitterly, and the only publicity goes to the quacks who pay for it, because the local newspapers don’t want to write about ‘unpleasant topics,’ forsooth!”

“Do you want a chance for some publicity in a small way?” asked Mrs. Clyde.

“Do I! Show me the chance.”

“The Mothers’ Association meets here this afternoon. We haven’t much business on hand. Come in and talk to us for an hour.”

“Fine!” said the Health Master, with enthusiasm. “Half of that time will do me. How many will be there?”