The Treatment of Tumors.— In general it may be said that for most tumors the proper treatment lies in their removal when feasible at the earliest possible moment. Modern surgery has made possible operations which formerly were unheard of and the chances of the patient afflicted with malignant disease are constantly improving. The older surgeons operated to prolong life or to make existence more bearable till death came as a relief : the surgeon of to day operates to cure. Large portions of the stomach are frequently excised for carcinoma, and many cures are reported. Intestinal resec tion makes the extirpation of new growths in this region possible, while the technique of uterine operations has been developed to such a degree that fibromyomata, can be removed with comparatively little risk, and even carci noma in this situation has lost some of its terrors. Malignant tumors of the breast are permanently cured in from 40 to 50 per cent of the cases, the success being due to the thorough ness with which modern operators remove the tissues under the breast and the enlarged glands in the axilla, and statistics are showing constant improvement in the operative results in all forms of malignant disease. See SURGERY.
Various other plans of treatment are em ployed to some extent. Inoperable sarcomata have been greatly benefited by injections of bac terial toxins, and in the use of various forms of light-rays from the violet end of • the spec trum, the X-rays and in the emanations from radio-active substances we have promising adjuncts to surgery. See PHOTOTHERAPY ; RA
DIUM THERAPY.
Caustics are rarely successful in the treatment of malignant tumors and their application is al ways painful and leaves disfiguring scars. Char latans of various types diagnose all sorts of conditions as cancers and proceed to cure them with great éclat; when actual malignant growths are encountered by them the time lost in this way before the necessity for proper advice is realized usually costs the patient's life.
Bibliography.—Bainbridge, W. S., The Cancer Problem) (New York 1914) ; Brewer, G. E., 'Textbook of Surgery' (3d ed., Phila delphia 1915); Delafield and Prudden, 'A Hand book of the Pathological Anatomy and His tology) (10th ed., New York 1914), which con tains a full bibliography; Bland-Sutton, John, 'Tumors, Innocent and Malignant' (4th ed., Chicago 1906); Hertzler, A. E., Treatise on Tumors) (Philadelphia 1912) ; Scudder, C. L., 'Tumors of the Jaws' (ib. 1912) ; Virchow, Rudolf, krankhaften Geschwiilste) (Ber lin 1900) ; Von Bergmann and Bull, System of Practical Surgery' (New York 1904) ; Till mann's (A Text-book of Surgery) (New York 1901) ; White, C. P., of Growth: Tumors' (New York 1914).