Cancer clinically considered / by John Bland-Sutton.

  • Sir John Bland-Sutton, 1st Baronet
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cancer clinically considered / by John Bland-Sutton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    breast was in the condition known as chronic mastitis, in which the bulk of the breast is replaced by fibrous tissue, and with very little glandular material in it, we had no hesitation in taking away the breast, because it has been shown over and over again that cancer is much more liable to attack diseased organs than those which are healthy. Abnormal conditions of tissues and organs which predispose them to cancer are spoken of as pre-cancerous conditions. Although we are absolutely helpless in curing well-marked cases of cancer, even by operation, we are striving more and more to recognise what are the preceding, or pre- cancerous conditions, so that we can deal with them surgically, before they become cancerous. Cancer may begin on the tip of the nipple, and I have had under my care a woman whose nipple was completely destroyed by cancer. This is her story : She was in Northumberland Ward three years ago for rheumatism, and I was asked to see her breast because she had some ulceration of the nipple, and I advised her to wait until the physicians cured her rheumatism. If at that time the ulceration continued she had better come and see me again. Ulceration of the nipple usually heals, but in some patients it becomes chronic, and Sir James Paget, who was the greatest authority in his day on cancer and tumours of the breast, pointed out that he had seen a number of these cases of chronic eczema of the nipple become cancerous. He advocated and practised amputation of the breast when patients canTe under observation with inveterate eczema of the nipple. This particular woman took me literally at my word ; the doctors had not managed to cure her rheumatism, and she did not come to me again until the ulceration had completely destroyed the nipple, and its place was occupied by an ulcer surrounded by a ring of hard cancerous tissue. You will naturally say to me : How is it that, although