LIGHT ON CANCER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1938, Page 8

LIGHT ON CANCER

RECURRENCE OF DISEASE. RHYTHMICAL FACTOR SEEN. A remarkable series of observations published in the “British Journal of Surgery,” by Dr J. H. Douglas Webster, of the Middlesex Hospital, throws what may prove to be important new light on the problem of cancer. A detailed follow-up of a large number of cases in which cancer manifestations recurred revealed a definite periodicity in these fresh appearances. In the great majority of cases the period was 33 weeks, with a number of recurrences at half this period. The greatest variation in the 33-week period was not more than three weeks early or late. In cases where there was no recurrence at the expected period, it was found, if recurrence took place later that it did so at the next period or a subsequent one. In other words, it would appear that a rhythmical factor has been discovered, which tends to support the view, established in certain types of cases, that a living virus is at any rate one of the elements in the production of cancer. This should have an important effect in the after-treatment and observation of cases. If discovered early enough, cancer is often curable. In such cases no recurrence takes place, but a careful examination at the period when such a recurrence may be expected should nevertheless be made since the prospects of treatment, either surgically or by irradiation, are infinitely more favourable in the earliest. Dr Webster quotes some remarkable and successful examples in which periodical recurrences have been detected and cured. In any case, it would seem that a new step may have been taken toward the solution of one of the most complex problems on which medical science is engaged. Dr Webster says that confirmation of periodicity has come from Professor Berven, of Stockholm, who agrees that it is shown in many cases detailed in his book, “Malignant Tumours of the Tonsil.”