418 APPENDIX C 



patient that he takes a cancer out " by the roots," he is talking 

 nonsense. 



Some cancers grow very slowly ; for instance, some of those 

 on the skin may remain for ten or twenty years without 

 spreading any very great distance and without forming little 

 lumps elsewhere in the body. Other cancers grow very rap- 

 idly and are fatal within a few months. Most cancers, however, 

 remain local for a considerable period, probably six months to 

 two years, before they really start to spread out in the tissues 

 and if only they can be discovered and cut out during an early 

 stage, the patient can be surely cured. 



Symptoms of Cancer. ■ — Unfortunately, the very smallest 

 cancers give no symptoms unless they are on the skin or lip or 

 tongue or elsewhere on the surface of the body ; and in these 

 situations the earliest diagnosis can be made. Cancers the size 

 of a pea or but little larger are often diagnosed and removed 

 by a surgeon with an assured result, if the operation has been 

 properly done. 



In the stomach and internal organs, however, the cancer 

 does not give rise to symptoms until it is quite large, and it is 

 important, therefore, for anyone who has any disturbance of 

 the stomach or intestines, loss of weight, or anemia, to go at 

 once to a surgeon, because by modern chemical methods and 

 by the use of the X-ray a diagnosis can often be made on one 

 of these cancers long before it can be felt or seen. 



One of the last symptoms of cancer is pain ; this is due to 

 the pressure on the nerves by the growth spreading out through 

 the tissues. When a cancer gives a great deal of pain it is 

 usually beyond operation. Bleeding is a common result of 

 cancer of the intestines, and is one of the most important 

 symptoms. Every one should know, however, that when a 

 lump appears anywhere on the body, a physician should be seen 

 immediately ; the lump may prove to be an abscess or some- 

 thing quite harmless, for there are a good many tumors which 

 are quite harmless, or it may prove to be a cancer, and then if 

 it has been seen early enough, it can be cured by operation. 



