San Francisco cancer survey : fourth preliminary report (seventh and eighth quarterly reports) / by Frederick L. Hoffman.

  • Frederick Ludwig Hoffman
Date:
[1928?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: San Francisco cancer survey : fourth preliminary report (seventh and eighth quarterly reports) / by Frederick L. Hoffman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    under normal population conditions. It may reach a stationary condition when an excessive death rate has been obtained, and a slight decline, but I do not know ol a single recorded instance where a normal population, once subject to a high death rate from cancer, has suffered any material or complete decline in its incidence. (9) No Sudden Outbreaks of Cancer Dr. Sambon also makes the statement that “cancer may break out suddenly in a place long immune, then disappear, or it may remain quiescent, at least in so far as man is concerned, for many years.” I do not know of any data to support this statement. (10) Cancer and Heredity Among his other conclusions, Dr. Sambon holds that “heredity does not seem to be a determining factor.” This statement is in conformity with my own conclusions, based upon the examination of over 3,000 individual records for living cancer patients carefully investigated. (11) Cancer and Tuberculosis It has been suggested to me that I should give attention to the possible coincidence of cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis. I considered this phase of the question some years ago, as dealt with in my “Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World,” and I came to an entirely negative conclusion, d he most definite data were obtained from the Henry Phipps Institute in Philadelphia, where a special examination of post-mortem records was made for the purpose. There recently appeared a statement in the Journal of the American Medical Association, ol a case of associated tuberculosis and carcinoma of the right breast in a woman of thirty-eight, reported by Smith and Mason, but without clinical evidence of any other associated tuberculosis. The authors reviewed the literature on the subject, indicating that there were only eighteen other cases on record that can lay claim to proof of concurrence of the two diseases. The obvious theoretical con¬ clusions are, therefore, that the two conditions either occur independently or are dependent on each other, but that in the present case, tuberculosis was apparently superimposed on a scirrhous carcinoma. (12) Cancer of tiie Luncs Of much greater importance are investigations concerning the occurrence of cancer of the lungs. That form of cancer is apparently on the increase and of comparatively recent origin. What the conditioning circumstances may be that determine this increase has not as yet been ascertained. An important contribution on cancer of the lungs has recently been con¬ tributed by Drs. Lichty, Wright and Baumgartner, of Clifton Springs, Nenr York, to the Journal of the American Medical Association, July 17, 1926. This report deals with seventeen cases, the subject being introduced with the statement that, “Carcinoma of the lungs in the most recent studies shows a much higher incidence than was formerly thought. It has come to be recognized as occurring comparatively frequently; so much so that
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