Cancer Of The Breast Treated Medically

Abstract

The author presents eleven case summaries of patients he treated for breast cancer (Cancer of the Breast, with a Study of 250 Cases in Private Practice, Philadelphia, 1924). The author is an opponent of surgical treatment, X-ray and radium, since, in his opinion, the disease often recurs or metastasizes in a majority of cases so treated. He advocates a conservative approach to treatment, using dietary, hygienic and medical measures. With this kind of treatment, the author has seen the original tumor disappear, glandular involvement disappear, and, if the patients continue to live according to “exact correct lines,” many live normal lives with no recurrence. In analyzing his private case papers, the author found records of 315 patients with breast cancer that he has treated over 40 years. Upon follow-up the author found only 57 (30 deaths among postoperative cases and 27 among primary), or 18.5%, deaths among his recorded cases. The author states that for many of his cases there has been no microscopic proof, unless it was performed by other physicians, because the author does not permit biopsy, “as this would complicate the case, and expose the patient to metastases, as I have frequently witnessed in cancer in many localities.” Among advanced and especially postoperative cases, whether by surgical excision, X-ray, or radium, the mortality figures are considerably higher, approximately 36%.