Review of recent cancer research / by E.F. Bashford.

  • Bashford, E. F. (Ernest Francis), 1873-
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Review of recent cancer research / by E.F. Bashford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    cinonia and sarcoma and can be brought into connection with developmental anomalies in which complicated tumours, or sar- comata, more rarely carcinomata, have arisen. From the 20th year onwards the curve for each sex rises progressively, and like- wise both for carcinoma and sarcoma. The old teaching that sarcoma was a disease of youth is untenable; sarcoma is relatively more frequent in youth than is carcinoma, but both become more frequent in a parallel manner as life advances. The old teaching, now shown to be erroneous, was due to the statistical fallacy of generalising from hospital statistics which have no relation to the actual facts of population, its sex and age constitution. The cur\es in which all cases are thrown together, although they give valuable information, conceal very important facts which are only revealed when curves are constructed not only for each sex at the several age-periods, but also for each organ or site of the body. Then the greater frequency of cancer in women is seen to be due to cancer of the breast and uterus. It is also evident that the relation between age and mortality is different for the dift'erent organs but parallel for the same organ in the two sexes. This similarity is illustrated by the extreme example of the cancer of the breast so common in women, so rare in men. The curves are parallel and rise to the end of life in both sexes; the same obtains for ilie liver, skin, rectum, lip, and face. If dift'erent organs are compared, c. g., breast and uterus, the curve for the uterus attains only half the height of that for the Ijreast according to age, although there is a greater total mortality from cancer of the uterus than for any other single organ. This difference is in part explained because cancer of the uterus becomes a frequent cause of death, and therefore causes more deaths at earlier ages than does cancer of the breast. Nevertheless, the curves l)ring out real differences in the susceptibility to cancer at different ages in the two organs; whereas the curve for the breast rises to the end of life, that for the uterus flattens after 55 and falls progressively after 65. .Similar differences exist also for other organs; skin, lij), and face lia\e typical cur\-es, rising to the end <if life, which stand in sliar]) contrast to tlic c(|na]]\- tvpical curves for the tongue, liver, intestines, stomacli, which attain a mnxi-