230,000 WILL DIE

My name is Charles Cameron. I am a doctor. My specialty is cancer. I am the medical and scientific director of the American Cancer Society. In the program you're about to see, some of you may feel you are being frightened. And perhaps some of you shouldn't watch it. But if you do not, it may be that you or someone dear to you will die because you missed it. Unless you and your neighbors learn to help us fight it, cancer will kill a quarter of a million Americans in one year. 230,000 will die. This woman's name is Lillian Mailer. If she had not done what she did when she did, she would be dying today of cancer. But she is as well as you are. Listen to her story and listen to it carefully. I was afraid I had cancer, but I didn't let that keep me from going to the doctor. If I hadn't gone, I wouldn't be here today. I was lucky. What Mrs. Mailer says illustrates a curious fact in the fight against cancer. Fear does two different things to people. It drives some, like Mrs. Mailer, to their doctors in time to save lives. It freezes others into inactivity and death. Cancer is curable, but fear becomes a killer for those who won't face facts, for those afraid to find out the truth. In the 28 minutes left to us, I plead with you to face the truth, to face the facts of each of the seven danger signals of cancer which we are going to show you. Some may at first seem unpleasant, but I can guarantee that for every 100,000 persons watching me right now, several thousand have those danger signals. And in 800 of you, those signals mean cancer. Cancer strikes one in every five, but your action can determine whether a strike becomes a kill. Many people have strange attitudes and misconceptions about what cancer really is and how it strikes. We took our cameras to a street and interviewed the first five passersby. This street could be anywhere in America. Listen to what they said about cancer, for you might say the same thing. A friend of mine was talking with her doctor the other day, a personal friend of the family, and he said that cancer is definitely on the increase today. And in his opinion, all the fast pace, the rushing here, the dashing there, the tension under which we live, that is causing the cancer. In fact, that is why, in his opinion, cancer is more on the increase today than it ever was in the history of the world. Well, I don't know much about cancer, but I know uh I'd hate to have it. But if it comes along, you just have to go with it. I know it's an incurable disease. I think there's a lot of propaganda about this. I think if there were less talk, it would help. If people stopped talking about it, perhaps they wouldn't worry about it so much. As far as I know, there has never been any in my family. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't going to be any. Well, I go to my doctor, figure he knows about it, so no reason for me to get alarmed. Uh figure the doctor knows what he's doing. Five random people. One says it's incurable. False. Cancer can be cured. Another dislikes this scary propaganda. Wrong. Cancer's greatest enemy is the truth and in time. Another says it's hereditary. False. Period. Another misunderstands the doctor's statement about cancer and blames its increase on our pace of living. Wrong. Cancer is increasing as a killer because we've licked most of the other killers, more or less, pneumonia, typhoid, tuberculosis, and because we're all living longer than we used to. Only one of these five people was willing to face it unafraid. Four others, either misinformed or afraid of the truth or both. Now, if everything has gone according to plan, you should see behind me seven lighted areas. Good. Each area represents a symptom, a warning, a danger signal of cancer. Now, as I said, cancer can be cured and it can, but it must be caught in time. You must know its earliest warnings. And so in each area, you'll find someone who had one of these warnings and for reasons ranging from luck to wisdom, went to his doctor. One found he had only colitis. Others found they had this. This is the enemy. This is cancer, the characteristic of which is these deformed cells which were removed from a cancer patient. They not only look different from normal cells, but they behave differently. Instead of performing useful functions and maintaining life, they do only one thing. They divide in rapid, uncontrolled, endless reproduction. This is what cancer is. Here we see a living normal cell magnified 10,000 times. In your body, normally, this, the miracle of life, is an orderly, deliberate process. One cell into two. By contrast, we have here a cell of the enemy, cancer. At first, it lies quiet, but in it is danger. Now begins its strange, violent frenzy of reproduction. It does not divide into two evenly matched cells, but explodes into five deformed, malignant cells of cancer. Sooner or later, this group of dividing cells grows large enough to form a mass which can be seen or felt as a lump or sometimes as an ulceration or sore. And now for the way in which such lumps and sores actually appear to the patient, the danger signals of cancer. Danger signal number one. Any sore that does not heal. Standing beside me here is Mr. Adrian Dijkstra who had a sore which didn't heal. Mr. Dijkstra is a clam fisherman. This uh clam fishing intrigues me, Mr. Dijkstra. Do you fish for clams? No, we dig for them. Well, that sounds more likely. Tell us how this affair on your lip began, please. Well, they some people some claim that the sun has a lot to do with it. But this happened with a cigarette. I put a cigarette in my mouth without wetting it. When I took it out, took a piece of the flesh with it. When it healed, it left a blue spot. Eventually, it formed a sore, something like a wart on the main pain. It got larger and larger and I went to see my doctor. He advised me to go see a specialist. The specialist took a sample, sent me home for 3 days. When I came back, they put radium on it to uh cure it. I sat for 5 hours and I've never had and went home, my wife asked me, "How'd you make out?" I said, "I don't think anything of it. It doesn't amount to nothing." And you haven't had any trouble since and that was 23 3 years ago? That's right. Here is a man whose intelligent interpretation of a sore which did not heal has meant 23 years of healthy, happy living with cancer a closed chapter. Persistent sores, sores that do not heal, regardless of how small they are, deserve the same kind of attention that Mr. Dijkstra gave his. Danger signal number two. Any change in a wart or mole. Sitting beside me here is Mrs. Lillian Mailer, a housewife with two children whose warning you heard a moment ago. Listen to her story. Mrs. Mailer, this trouble of yours began as a mole. Yes, I noticed a mole on my leg which seemed to be growing larger. I had read pamphlets from the American Cancer Society and I became suspicious. I went to a skin doctor and had it removed. But a week later, I was told the medical reports proved it to be malignant. It was malignant and may I ask your reaction to that news? Well, I was stunned. But not panicked? No, not panicked. I went to the hospital immediately and had further surgery done. And since that surgery, have you had any inconveniences as the result of it? None at all. Thank you, Mrs. Mailer. Most of us have moles. The average person has 21. But the point is that most of them are harmless. Occasionally a mole begins to change. It grows a little larger or it gets a little darker in color and sometimes it bleeds. Should this happen, do as Mrs. Mailer did. Take it to a doctor and you can do something else. You can ask your doctor's advice about the removal of simple warts and moles which are in locations where they may be irritated into activity. Danger signal number three. Unusual bleeding or discharge. By unusual bleeding we mean blood in the stool, blood in the urine, blood in the sputum and irregular vaginal bleeding. As I will explain to you in a in a minute, it is significant that the cancer in the case of Mrs. Lyden, who is here beside me, was found before that danger signal appeared. Mrs. Lyden is a newspaper woman and in gathering material for an article she was writing about cancer, she submitted to a new kind of cancer detection examination and I'd like you to hear the story from her. As I understand it, you had no symptoms or no signs that would lead you to think that you were in any way ill. Oh, not at all, Dr. Cameron. I was out to write a story about the new smear technique and went to a doctor whom I thought would be able to give me that test. Uh she took the the smear and then that called me up a a day or two much to my surprise and asked me to come again and I came and had another smear taken and uh then and my goodness, she called me and said that I had to come into the hospital for a final test which proved to be cancer. I was operated on and here I am. May I ask what your uh your reaction was when you learned that you had to face this big operation? Well, Dr. Cameron, of course I'd never had a similar experience and I think there is a certain amount of tenseness and discomfort, of course, to go through an operation. But I must say that uh once you're over it after a few days of discomfort, you're just so happy that you're well and on your feet again that you forget it all. I'm grateful for your coming, Mrs. Lyden. Let me explain here that the smear test referred to by Mrs. Lyden is relatively new. It is not yet available everywhere. Although the test is simple and painless so far as the patient goes, it can be difficult and time-consuming. But it can uncover cancer of the uterus or womb before any danger signal has appeared at a time when curability is greatest. When it becomes possible for all women to take advantage of it, I confidently expect that deaths from cancer of the womb, now the leading cancer destroyer of women, to become a fraction of what they are today. The reason the test is so valuable is that it makes it possible to find cancer of the womb while it is still localized, still confined, before it has spread. One of the characteristics of cancer is its tendency to spread to other parts of the body. Here's a mass of cancer cells growing in the stomach. Now one or two cells break off from the original cancer and slip into the bloodstream where they float to some distant site, are deposited and start a new colony. Once metastasis has occurred, cancer can rarely be cured and that is why it is of supreme importance to treat cancer while it is localized. Danger signal number four. A lump in the breast or elsewhere. The breast is the most frequent site of lumps which may mean cancer. The larger the lump in the breast is, the poorer the outlook is. The sad fact is that the average woman with breast cancer presenting herself for treatment has a lump which measures a little less than 2 in diameter. That's about the size of this ping pong ball. And yet it is entirely possible to discover breast masses when they're no larger than this marble provided the trouble is taken to look for them. I've seen patients with breast cancer so small that I had difficulty finding them although although they had found them themselves. Therefore, we urge women, all women, to carefully and methodically examine their breasts at regular intervals, say once a month. And with this simple health habit, every woman can enjoy the best insurance against the unfortunate consequences of breast cancer. But this type of tumor can come elsewhere than in the breast. It can appear anywhere. A slow growth, a lump, perhaps an open lesion. Sitting here with us today is a woman whom we're going to identify only as Mrs. R. The lump was below the knee of her 12-year-old son, Dick. Dick is dead. That's why Mrs. R is here. For with her, with Dick, the story is not only too late, it's a story of putting faith in unaccepted treatments and those who administer them. Mrs. R, I'd like you to tell us why you went to this man in the first place. We were told that this man could do wonderful things and that we had heard from a friend of ours that he had supposedly cured a brain tumor. So we took the boy to him. He examined him and uh he patted the boy on the head and he said, "I'll save your leg and your life, too." What sort of treatment did uh they give in this place where you took Dick? Well, there was a nurse there and uh I had to have my daughter, Lillian, there or I had to stay to take care of Dick. You had to stay there to nurse him? Yes. And patients would help one another. And he finally lost so much weight and uh What kind of May I ask what kind of medicine or or treatment they gave? He had to take 10 juices a day and uh he uh he uh had to have an application on his leg and uh What did that application consist of? I'm curious. It consisted of green juice, the same as he drank and that in the green juice? That was made from beet tops, Swiss chard, lettuce and cabbage. Beet tops, Swiss chard, lettuce and cabbage. On his tumor. Yes. And the result of all this, did it do anything for him? No, it didn't. It made him weaker and thinner all the time and his leg swelled terribly. And you finally took him out. Yes, we finally took him home and uh we tried to continue the treatment home but he went from bad to worse. I'd like you to tell us how Dr. B finally came into the picture in Dick's case. When we took him to the hospital, Dr. B examined him and he put him on a high protein diet and he built him up and in a few days he was more like himself. So he said that uh the amputation was necessary and uh we had it done and when he come home he was just like his old self. Uh he had gained weight? Yes, he had gained weight and his eyes were bright and he was in very good uh condition. And he played? Yes, he had uh airplanes that he flew around and he had an air rifle that we let him shoot into a box of papers and he had trains that he played with his boyfriends. And he had a it just felt wonderful. Uh could I ask you what you think might have happened if you'd gone to Dr. B in the first place? I think if we had had Dr. B in the beginning, we still would have the boy. This is a sad story, a strong one, a story of good people who put their faith in a healer who promised to save a life with cabbage leaves and fruit juice. These men are all around us all the time with their promises. Don't pay any attention to them. It's quite likely that Mrs. R would have her boy today if she had not hoped for a miracle which couldn't happen. Danger signal number five. Any change in bowel habits. I have something here I'd like to read to you. Says, "Do you suffer from irregularity? If not satisfied with blank after a 30-day trial, get double your money back." Here with us today is a gentleman who had irregularity and who chose to recognize it as a danger signal of cancer instead of taking blank for 30 days. Mr. Dowling, incidentally, is no stranger to television for he makes his living as an actor. Mr. Dowling, would you tell us something about this experience? Well, about 6 months ago I began to having some intestinal irregularity. But in the very beginning I had diarrhea and well, it just went against me. Uh on the opposite side, it was true, I well, I had trouble there, too. So I decided I'd go to my doctor and have an examination. Was the examination painful? No, just mildly uncomfortable. And what did the doctor do beside this physical examination? Took x-rays of my entire digestive system. And the results? Well, my doctor told me afterwards that that first he suspected I had cancer of the rectum but the examination showed that I had nothing more than a severe case of colitis. How were you treated? He put me on a proper diet and medications and in a couple of weeks I was feeling fine. No more trouble? No more trouble. Before assuming that it is safe to treat any change in bowel habits with home remedies, make certain. Please make certain that that change is not due to something serious. Don't gamble on the possibility that your trouble is as trivial as Mr. Dowling's was. Danger signal number six, persistent indigestion. Do you think cancer is incurable? Well, look here at a man who had cancer of the stomach and most of whose stomach was removed 13 years ago. How do you feel, Mr. Collori? I feel strong. You feel strong. You feel all right. Everything is all right. Do you eat everything? Everything eat. Do a full day's work? Yes. Uh suppose you tell us what you were like before the operation. No, no, not like before operation. You don't like it before the operation. Um did you have pain or did you have trouble eating? everything I no eat and nothing no sleep. No sleep. Pain in the stomach, yeah. That's all. You get thin? Yeah, there's coming down in the It is there's it is on the bottom you coming down a uh as a photo on bottom. 40 lb, eh? Uh how'd you like the operation? Every day operation everything I grow in the weight, you know. How soon did you go back to work? After a week operation. A week after you got out of the hospital. It's not a week last time I the three days go back to work but no work it's just a watch and talk, you know. You went back to work soon after and you're still working. I going to work. Cancer of the stomach is the leading cause of death from cancer. Not more than 6% of these patients are cured and the reason is due to delay in diagnosis. I'm sure that almost every one of you listening to me has had a friend operated on for this disease and the verdict has been too late. The usual report is there was nothing to do but sew him up. Indigestion developing in a person beyond middle life and without previous complaints demands just one thing and that is that cancer of the stomach be ruled out by the most careful kind of medical investigation. We don't say that all cancer of the stomach can be cured. We do say that the earlier it is treated the better the chances are and here you've seen the living proof of it. Danger signal number seven, persistent coughing. Beside me here is a man who is living today because of a nagging wife. Mr. Cummings has come all the way from his farm in Georgia to tell us his story. It is a story of how each of you might save a life dear to you. Mr. Cummings, what is that story? Well, they had on a campaign for TB X-ray in Colquitt I in Colquitt County, my hometown. And so I my wife kept insisting I go. Let me understand this. Did you have a cough? I did, bad. Yes, but you didn't consider yourself sick. No. This was a county-wide chest X-ray survey. That's right, yes. And so I finally she kept on and pleading with me and I said to ease your mind, let's go. To ease her mind. That's right. Not mine. Yeah. So I went on down and few days first X-ray I had a notice to come back. And I went back and he the doctor told me he wanted to know. And he got that one. Few days later called to come back for the third X-ray. Let me just interrupt a minute and show the people here what this um X-ray of yours showed. The doctors found a tumor in Mr. Cummings' right lung and uh you can see the tumor showing right here. Now after the diagnosis was made Mr. Cummings, uh what happened? Well, the doctor wasn't satisfied. He told me he wanted to go to chest surgeon. Which I did. And after his examination he told me that it my case was operable but he wouldn't say how long. And he sent me to the Atlanta VA Hospital. There I had my entire lung removed. Your entire lung removed and that was how long ago? Seven years. Seven years you've been without a lung. Uh you still run a farm? I do. And uh you think you're as good as you ever were? Yes, sir. Except I don't pick up over 100 lb at a time. 100 lb anymore. Cancer of the lung is the only kind of cancer which is increasing at an alarming rate. Our only hope of combating it lies in finding it early and it usually can be found early. Indeed, it can often be discovered before it has rung the danger signal of cough through the simple, inexpensive, painless practice of having a chest X-ray taken twice each year. Now I think you must all be familiar uh with the opinion of some doctors and scientists which cast suspicion on smoking as a cause of cancer of the lung. If smoking does in fact prove to be an important factor in the development of lung cancer, then we should be able to control it to an important degree by avoiding excessive smoking. In the meantime, let your doctor look for the warning shadow which may mean cancer by having your chest X-rayed periodically, especially if you are a man and over 45. These seven symptoms, seven warnings, seven danger signals. I hope you know by now that each is worth checking. Remember, cancer is not hereditary. Cancer is curable but cancer strikes one in five. Don't let that strike become a kill. Listen to this plea. I'm Jim Breslav in the advertising business. Because my wife's cancer was not caught in time, I have no wife today and my daughter Susie has no mother. Don't let it happen to you. I beg you, please see your doctor in time. If each of you remembers those words if you remember the words in time if you remember each of these seven danger signals and perhaps most important of all if you try to help save a life beside your own from cancer if each of you watching me right now were to do these things then this would change to this. We of the American Cancer Society have asked you to help us fight our relentless fight against the enemy, cancer. Without your help, we cannot win.