The
author (1896 – 1939) describes the treatment of cancer using homeopathy
and isopathic methods and specific nosodes. With regard to homeopathy
he prescribes the general treatment with constitutional, cancer,
drainage and canalization remedies, as well as local treatment. He gives
his recommendations differentiating between the treatment of the
precancerous and cancer state. Dr. Bernoville was a French Homeopathic
Physician, the Chief editor of L’Homeopathie Moderne, one of the
founders of the Laboratoire Homeopathiques Modernes, and the founder of
the Institut National Homeopathique Francais.
To
patients and even to physicians, cancer gives the impression of being
the most terrible scourge, which is fatal, pitiless, irremediable as
soon as it fixes its signature on the human being. That isn’t always so.
Each of the therapeutic methods employed against cancer has really
shown itself capable of curing indisputable cases, and even in certain
circumstances, though they are rare, one has seen malignant tumors not
only remain stationary but even regress and sometimes disappear.
However, it is impossible to make use of these facts for the future
because of their inconstancy.
The
same holds true for classical homeopathy. Some good homeopathic
practitioners, as well as some empiricists, after having treated several
hundred cases of cancer, have been able to boast, with truth, that they
have been able to cure some of these cases. We can admit it, even after
excluding the doubtful cases or those unproved because of a lacking
biopsy. But one cannot depend on these for they are isolated
accomplishments.
The
properly called homeopathic treatment can be useful in cancer however;
be it to retard the progression of the cancer, be it to palliate against
the pains, be it opposed, finally, to the general intoxication, not
only in the phase of the confirmed cancer but especially in the
pretumoral phase, prophylactic treatment of cancer or the cure of the
precancerous state.
However,
modern homeopaths, knowing that it is necessary to add more efficacious
arms to their traditional arsenal, have been orienting themselves for
twenty or thirty years in a channel of specific treatment: tumor
extracts, isotherapy, dilutions of products, various discovered
organisms in the cancerous masses, whatever their significance may be
(generators of lesions or saprophytes only).
Successively, we shall study:
1. The properly called homeopathic treatment.
2. The different specific and isopathic methods which are associated to homeopathy.
HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT
Actually
then, the great directing idea of the officials is that cancer is a
disease, firstly local, which then generalizes itself, which is only
grave because of this generalization and invasion of the body. That
which is called the precancerous state exists only in so much local
irritation, or the isolated organic inflammation can be the cause for
cancer (for example, a proctitis determining a favorable state for the
birth of a rectal cancer, a uterine polyp degenerating into a uterine
epithelioma, etc.)
Consequence:
it is essential to fight these local inflammations, and act
aggressively on the tumoral element in order to destroy it (be it by
radiation or surgical intervention). The main argument which appears to
favor this belief is the relative rarity of relapses of cancers in
aggressively treated cases and the exception of cases of primitive
tumors appearing successively in different organs in the same patient.
On
the contrary, homeopaths believe in general, and other colleagues hold
equally to this idea, that there not only exists at the same time but
especially for some time before the appearance of a tumor, a general
constitutional state or generator of cancer. The local irritation acts
only as a focus of localization; it is a thorn due to disturbances of
regional tropism (tissue or organ).
Consequence:
Know the signs of the precancerous state in order to treat the body
before the appearance of the tumor and treat the general state as well
as the cancer during or after the latter. The valuable argument in favor
of this idea is the possibility of obtaining occasionally a remission
or an amelioration, which is only temporary, by acting on the general
state and via internal channels.
In
reality, if certain officials are strangely blind when they refuse to
admit the existence of an already deficient general state in a
clinically pretumoral phase, certain traditional homeopaths, especially
foreigners, are mistaken, in our opinion, when they neglect the extreme
importance of the local factor in cancer as in other affections.
To
clarify our demonstration let us take another example: an abscess or
phlegmon. Before the appearance of the suppuration one can prove that
there exists in the general state of the subject warning disturbances:
suppurative tendency; the smallest wound is infected very easily, the
patient is fatigued, there often exists cytological transformations,
etc. Then the abscess forms. At this moment local signs appear and
assume more and more the first position over the signs of general
disturbance unless the abscess is opened and the pus exteriorized. In
this case, general treatment is useful before and after; the abscess
ought to be associated with local measures, in the suppurative phase.
There
is likewise in cancer a rational local treatment whose object is the
tumoral destruction, be it by irradiation or better still by operative
oblation, be it by local application of homeopathic remedies;
it should be practiced each time this is possible, for without that the
treatment of general detoxification is shown to be insufficient in the
greater part of the cases.
lt is then necessary to envisage homeopathic treatment from two aspects:
General (remedies to be prescribed in the precancerous state as well as during the tumoral phase or after it).
Local (treatment only possible in the actual cancer period).
General Treatment
This is composed of:
1. Constitutional remedies
2. Cancer remedies
3. Drainage and canalization remedies
CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDIES
Numerous
polychrests, habitually employed as remedies of morbid constitutions,
called “basic remedies” or improperly called “constitutional remedies”
are quite often indicated in cancerous and precancerous patients. As
elsewhere, they can also be prescribed in the greater part of the
chronic diseases, as Hahnemann described them. That it may be a question
of psora, that state so difficult to define yet so easily recognized;
that it may be a question of sycosis in other cases; that psora is
identifiable, according to Nebel, with hereditary tuberculosis (with
infections of intestinal origin for other authors); that it determines
in the subject a state called tuberculinique or pretuberculous in
others, or a precancerous diathesis in others; we should only note that,
habitually, it is the same great basic remedies which should be
prescribed in the first place. Our object here is only a practical one,
namely, to present a general view of the treatment of cancer, and it is
not an etiologic or pathogenic investigation.
Thus we find that depending on age, sex, race, soil, climate, habits of life, alimentation, morphology, there are a thousand shades which lend these remedies an extraordinary polymorphism. lt is also true that Thuja,
Lachesis, Iodium, Silicea, Lycopodium, Sulphur, Sepia, Petroleum, the
Calcareas, the Kalis, the Natrums, Carbo vegetabilis and animalis,
Graphites, Causticum, Arsenicum album, Phosphorus, Mercurius, Nitric
acid, Nux vomica, Ignatia,
shall present themselves judiciously to our minds as most often
characterizing the morbid state of our patients. They are for us protean remedies,
for precise personalities, which are multiple, faceted, variable. They
can be described in a different fashion, but as true as any other, as
characterizing certain hereditary psoric states in the child,
tuberculinique in every age but especially in the young subject (child,
adolescent, young adult): or precancerous psoric or precancerous sycotic states in adults and mature people or in the aged who frequently present associations of sycosis and psora.
We lack the space required to describe in a detailed manner the precancerous state as it is manifested in Thuja, Lachesis, Sulphur, etc., as we have previously done for the tuberculinique or tuberculous state (General View of the Present Homeopathic Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, L’Homeopathic Moderne,
Nov. 15, 1932). The reader should refer to the materia medica, which is
the premier source of all homeopathic knowledge. Let us limit ourselves
by giving only several practical indications of the value of these
remedies which are habitually employed in high potency in the
precancerous or even cancerous state.
THUJA:
This is the king of Hahnemann’s sycosis, the diathesis which is
productive of neoplasms, that are, most often, benign. These are warts,
condylomata, vegetations, nevi, etc. Sycosis supervenes upon a genital
infection, especially gonorrhoea, or after repeated vaccinations which are toxic to the body, especially Jennerian antivariolar vaccination.
Thuja is in the first rank of remedies for the precancerous state. In high potencies it is wise to repeat it rarely, since it can be dangerous and occasionally even precipitate a subject towards a cancerous localization.
In reality, Thuja
can also act with success in the confirmed cancer if the latter isn’t
too intensely malignant, and if the tumor is still localized. In such
cases it can be used for cancer of the breast (degenerated adenoma) and
for the cutaneous epitheliomata. In such cases one may be mistaken,
perhaps, in prescribing it in too high potencies. Thuja 6 repeated often would appear to act more favorably in certain cutaneous cancers, especially in the cancroids.
LACHESIS:
This is also a constitutional remedy of the first order for the
precancerous and starting cancer cases. This is especially so in females
approaching the fifth decade, following a period of glandular or
circulatory disturbances affecting the thyroid, ovaries and liver. These
disturbances are often accompanied by vertigo, flashes of heat,
palpitations, general hyperaesthesia (cannot tolerate anything tied
about the neck, chest or waist) and often, arterial hypertension. If
there exists a bloody discharge, the latter ameliorates the patient
(especially the periods). If, on the other hand, there is a cessation of
the discharge the condition is aggravated (menopause).
In other cases and regardless of sex, the precancerous Lachesis case is intoxicated (alcohol) or jaded.
The latter’s intensive creative efforts or inventive researches have
profoundly disturbed the humors and destroyed the reserves of nervous
energy.
Lachesis even acts well in certain cancers, in high potencies, and without appearing dangerous as Thuja is, even if it is repeated often. Its action is more general on the intoxication of cancerous origin. Thuja has a more localizing action.
IODIUM: This is complementary to Thuja which is also its antidote. Patient is debilitated, weak, and wastes very rapidly in spite of his good appetite. He has the tendency to produce new connective tissues and hard
glandular growths (breasts, uterus, lymphatic glands, thyroid, etc.).
One must not neglect to prescribe it, for it often has a favorable
action on the weight and even on the tumoral element which it can cause
to regress or whose induration and invasive tendency it will diminish.
SILICEA: This remedy is also related to Thuja and Iodium.
lt acts especially on the connective tissues in which, according to
Ribbert, modifications often occur before epithelial neoformation.
Lauded by Zeller, Fargas and other authors, it is suitable for the
precancerous or cancerous diathesis. lt can be prescribed in cicatricial
degenerations (keloids, analogous action to Fluoric acid) and especially in sclerosing tendencies with the production of new fibrous tissues. If Thuja is mentally obsessed, Iodium a depressed melancholic and anxious type, Silicea is a hypersensitive anxious type who is also capable of possessing fixed ideas.
lt is essential often to employ it in middle potencies in tumors and high potencies in the pretumoral phase. Fargas also used Silicic acid
in hypodermic injections, he claims with success, in several cases of
cancer. Like Iodium, Silicea is demineralized and wastes very rapidly.
LYCOPODIUM: Antipsoric like Calcarea carbonica and Sulphur, Lycopodium
evolutes toward cancer through its hepatic insufficiency. Its action
fortifies against the precancerous state. In confirmed cancer it barely
has any value since it has no power over the tumoral element as have Thuja, Iodium or Silicea.
If the hepatic insufficiency is great it should be cautiously employed in low potencies for even the 30th
has often shown itself to be dangerous, in cases of hepatic blockage.
lt is here that the necessity for a good preliminary general drainage
makes itself felt.
The Lycopodium subject who becomes cancerous will localize his tumor preferentially on the liver, stomach or intestine.
SULPHUR: King of Hahnemann’s antipsorics, Sulphur
ought to be reserved for the pretumoral state. lt has no favorable
action in a confirmed cancer, even at the start, and can even be
dangerous in this case by favoring the propagation of neoplastic cells
and the wasting. On the contrary, it is essential to know that it is to
be prescribed at times among these patients, generally hypertensives,
whose general arterial hypertension is accompanied by an intense portal
congestion which is both arterial and venous. This relieves bleeding
hemorrhoids. This
abdominal arteriovenous hypertension is the prelude of a cancer which
will preferably localize itself in the digestive tract or in an
abdominal viscus. In these cases an untimely local treatment, as in stopping bleeding hemorrhoids, can be very dangerous.
SEPIA: The morbid personality of Sepia is often noted in subjects in whom cancer is imminent. This remedy, like Sulphur and Lycopodium,
acts favorably on a disturbed general state, but not on a tumoral
element. lt is characterized by a venous portal hypertension, the
abdominal congestion predominating especially in the pelvis, and is not
accompanied, as in Sulphur, by an arterial participation. The atony determines ptoses
and the “bearing down” sensations. The endocrinal disturbances (liver,
adrenals; genitalia) cause the characteristic facies and the cutaneous
pigmentary modifications.
Untreated, Sepia will develop rather toward a cancer of the pelvis-uterus, rectum, sigmoid colon, prostate.
PETROLEUM: This remedy is allied to Sulphur. lt is curious to observe the cancerous tendency of Petroleum or of benzol and the derivatives of the oil (Pix liquida and the aniline compounds as I have already recorded). All these products act rather on the neoplastic tendency of the skin. Petroleum has
cracks < in winter, by cold. Its intolerance for cabbages is
accompanied by digestive disturbances and errors of treatment. lt can
also develop toward a neoplasm of the digestive mucosa as well as toward
cutaneous cancer. Petroleum directs itself toward surface cancers (skin, mucosa) and not toward bulky cancers (glands).
THE CALCAREAS: Of the three great calcium salts, Calcarea fluorica
is the only one which exhibits a neoplastic element. It confers on
glands or connective tissue a stony induration. lt is related to Silicea. lt acts as well in breast and uterine cancers as in those in other organs. Calcarea phosphorica has hardly any action either in cancer or in the precancerous state.
Calcarea carbonica -
Hahnemann’s great antipsoric – is rather indicated among the
precancerous hypothyroids, hypersensitive to cold and chilly, with
flaccid muscles and integument, malnourished, invaded by adipose tissue.
Blood clotting time is increased. (Joseph Roy in his blood examinations
has demonstrated the frequency of too rapid clotting in cancer and
precancerous cases.) The subject wastes rapidly after an initial phase
of false plethora and fatty invasion. Calcarea carbonica
can materialize, therapeutically, demineralizing factor in cancer. lt
can act selectively on the glandular hypertrophy. In suspicious and
indolent ulcerations, in engorgement of lymph glands, Calcarea iodata will be indicated. Calcarea oxalica should act on the pains in ulcerating cancers.
THE
KALIS: lt is known that there exists in cancer disturbances of
potassium metabolism as well as those of calcium, sodium and magnesium.
To tell the truth, the Kalis are remedies of secondary importance in confirmed cancer. However, the precancerous cases often require Kali carbonicum (weakness, chills, lumbar pains, sweats, wasting) or of Kali bichromicum
(gastric or pyloric ulcer which can develop into malignant
degeneration; sluggish ulcerations, indolent, with perpendicular
borders, thick discharges, viscous and flowing gently).
But we shall think especially of Kali iodatum
because of its selective action on the infiltrated connective tissue
and on the hypertrophied glands especially after syphilis. Kali arsenicum in inveterate skin diseases with fissures and malignant tendency. Kali cyanatum in lingual cancer.
THE NATRUMS: Natrum muriaticum
corresponds much more to the tuberculinique state than to the
precancerous state. However, among decalcified subjects it is
occasionally indicated. Natrum sulphurium
is suitable to the sycotic and hydrogenoid states, sensitive to damp
cold, in which the association of sycosis and psora can prepare the
birth of a malignant tumor.
THE CARBOS: Carbo vegetabilis,
for deficient vitality, for deficient oxygenation and nutrition,
presenting a gastrointestinal atony already old and stubborn, may be
indicated in cancer (especially digestive) or the precancerous state.
But Carbo animalis
is one of the best remedies for the established tumor; hard tumor,
indurated and swollen lymphatic glands, subcutaneous venous distention,
bluish discoloration of infiltrated tissues, burning pains, gastric
flatulence. lt has an especial selective action on the breast or stomach
cancer and merits special mention not only for its beneficial effects
often on the general state (gain of weight or temporary arrest of
wasting) but also for its action on the tumor itself which regresses,
becomes less hard with amelioration of pains.
GRAPHITES: Subject is extremely psoric, very chilly, oozing eruptions, obstinate constipation. Graphites
can characterize, in certain cases, the precancerous state with
tendency to induration of tissues and degeneration of cicatrices.
CAUSTICUM:
Very clearly this other antipsoric, at the same time sycotic, often
veers toward cancer: emaciation, dirty yellow color, terrified aspect,
tendency to facial warts, etc. In Causticum,
as in other remedies, the mental signs often are of great importance in
order to characterize and individualize the patient; the precancerous
subject frequently presents a weakened morale, sadness, obsessions, fear
of the future, anguish, exaggeration of the sensitivity; likewise, the
mental type of Causticum (hypersensitive, altruistic, sadness) or of Thuja (fixed ideas) or of Iodium (anxiety) and other remedies shall have to be considered in the choice of the basic remedy.
ARSENICUM ALBUM: Very important and often indicated, Arsenicum,
by its prostration, alternating or coexisting with a certain agitation,
by its burning pains, > by heat, its characteristic horary, clearly
individualizes many confirmed cancer cases to whom it will often bring a
temporary amelioration, transitory or slightly prolonged, as in very
weak precancerous subjects. Selective action on the cancroids (with Thuja and Cinnabaris).
PHOSPHORUS:
Poorly known, this remedy can clearly act with success before the
tumoral phase when the degeneration of a gland and its nuclei is yet
hardly delineated. Phosphorus has first a selective action on the higher tissues in contrast to Silicea,
its complementary, which presents an efficacy for interstitial tissues.
lt is especially in hepatic and pancreatic cancer that Phosphorus appears. Although of secondary importance, it is worthy of attention.
.
MERCURIUS:
By its nocturnal aggravation, engorgement of lymphatic glands, its
bleeding ulcerations, its prostration, its sweats, its oral fetor, Mercurius
and its salts can be retained in cancer which is localized on a part of
the digestive tract, especially if it follows a former syphilis. The
most interesting of the mercury salts is Cinnabaris (or Merurius sulphuratus ruber) in condylomata which may or may not be degenerated.
NITRIC ACID: Let us remember of this remedy, complementary to Mercurius and Calcarea carbonica,
its tendency to fissures and painful ulcerations (sensation of fine
needles), the debility, the demineralization, the progressive wasting
and thinning. lt is to be thought of, then, in confirmed cancer in which
it can act, if not on the general state, at least on the painful
element.
NUX
VOMICA and IGNATIA: Finally, these two strychnias which are not,
properly speaking, remedies for the precancerous state. They merit
mention, however, because of the frequency and importance of their
mental signs and the beneficial action they are capable of establishing
in the neuro-vegetative system and morale of our patients who are
cancerous or have a cancerous tendency.
Such
are the principal constitutional remedies we ought to review. The
dilutions in which they ought to be employed are variable enough. In a
general way, the high potencies will be reserved for the precancerous
state; the low and middle potencies for the confirmed cancers.
Let
us hasten to add that the results obtained with these remedies alone
are very uncertain, the cases of real cure very rare, simple
amelioration very variable in confirmed neoplasms. On the other hand, in
multiple precancer cases success is frequent. Unfortunately, it is
actually impossible, error of criterium and certainty, to give proof of
such accomplishments. The practitioner is deeply convinced of it. lt is
an impression valuable to himself alone.
THE PROPERLY CALLED CANCER REMEDIES
They
are very numerous in the classical homeopathic arsenal. We shall study
them very briefly by classifying them a little arbitrarily into several
groups for the convenience of our work.
The Most Habitual Remedies.
These are the ones which have revealed themselves as having the most constant action on the tumoral element as well as the general state.
SEDUM ACRE and SEDUM REPENS: The value of Sedum acre
was especially called to my attention by the lamented Abbe Keul. In
material doses, mother tincture, 1X and 3X, it has an undeniable action
on cancer in general, gives weight to the patients, and occasionally
modifies the tumor, or at least retards its progress. Their principal
sign is their tendency to mucosal and cutaneous fissures
which are so frequent in cancer or the precancerous state. The
pathogenesis of these two remedies is incomplete. Because of that we
must be satisfied to use them in an empirical fashion. Sedum repens acts especially on the abdominal organs. Sedum teleplium, another plant of the same family, should act especially on the uterus or cancerous rectum with hemorrhages.
SCROFULARIA
NODOSA: This remedy acts especially on cancers of breast, skin, uterus,
rectum, in low potencies or material doses, especially if there is
marked glandular invasion. A. Nebel praised its drainage action; Cooper
insisted very much on its value.
SEMPERVIVUM
TECTORUM: Lingual, breast, rectal and other cancers. Its tendency to
aphthae, to malignant ulcers ‚ specially indicate it in the ulcerated
cancer. lt can also be used in mother tincture or low potencies.
CARBO ANIMALIS: Already studied as a constitutional remedy of great value.
CUNDURANGO: I have personally observed the value of Cundurango
in esophageal, stomach or intestinal cancers. One of its valuable
external signs consists in fissures of the labial commissures. lt also
acts on cancer situated at the junction of mucosa and skin: lips, anus,
lid. Low or middle potencies.
CISTUS
CANADENSIS: This remedy acts especially in cancer of the breast,
pharynx, or neck and gives rise to very marked cervical adenopathy.
Chronic rhinopharyngitis. Extreme sensitivity to cold.
HYDRASTIS: As good for the breast as for the stomach, Hydrastis
is of great value in cancer, ulcerated not, with progressive debility,
wasting emaciation; hypochlorhydria is frequent before and during the
phase of gastric cancer.
KREOSOTUM:
Bleeding ulcerations, vegetations develop rapidly and emit a burning
discharge, excoriating, fetid; such are the principal signs of Kreosote which acts especially well in cancer of the cervix.
ORNITHOGALUM:
Already noted by Cooper, then used by Gisevius and other authors,
especially in low potencies or material doses. This remedy has a
remarkable action in the pyloroduodenal sphere whether it acts on an
ulcer or an established cancer.
PHYTOLACCA:
Here again is a remedy which must not be neglected in hard or scirrhous
tumors, since it can soften and diminish them, or slightly malignant
cancers which develop slowly (breast scirrhus) or on suspected tumors
which have not yet degenerated (parotids). But it has several
indisputable cases of cure to its credit. Syphilis is habitual among its
antecedents. Low potencies.
Remedies for Pain
ARSENICUM
ALBUM and NITRIC ACID: already studied among the constitutional
remedies, dominate this group; the first with its burning pains, the
second with its sensation of fine needles.
APIS: continues the series; burning pricks as with red hot needles.
ARNICA: bruised pains. Especially useful in breast adenoma following traumatism. The adenoma may or may not be degenerated.
BRYONIA: amelioration through rest and strong pressure (especially for breast cancer which ought to be supported or bound).
CALCAREA ACETICA: many pains, often constrictive.
EUPHORBIUM: burning or lancinating pains, pustular ulcerations.
MAGNESIA PHOSPHORICA: spasmodic pains (non-burning), > by heat.
RUTA: bruised pains, deep pains, osseous or periosteal. Intense weakness. Selective spheres, bone periosteum, cartilage, rectum.
Tumor Remedies.
The
remedies chosen for their action on the malignant tumor itself have
selective effects on a tissue or organ. Let us study here preferably the
tissue remedies reserving for drainage and canalization the indications
of visceral affinities of these vegetables and minerals.
SILICEA: constitutional remedy which acts on the connective and interstitial tissues; satellites are Silicic acid, praised by Fargas; Calcarea silicata (emaciation, sensitive to cold); Lapis albus so useful in simple uterine fibromas with adhesions (Calcium silico-fluoride).
BARYTA CARBONICA: acts also on the sclerosed or indurated tissues, especially in breast adenomas, degenerated or not; Aurum metallicum, Aurum arsenicum and Aurum muriaticum natronatum and Plumbum iodatum, all act especially on the indurated, scirrhous, non-vegetating forms.
SELENIUM is also praised here; debility, wasting, possible tendency to sarcomas.
Let us not forget the Calcareas which act on the lymphatic glands; Calcarea fluorica has a double action, connective tissues and glands.
On osseous tissue: Silicea, Aurum, Ruta (which also acts in rectal cancer) and especially Symphytum.
Several Minerals and Acids
Secondly,
different mineral salts and acids have been proposed in the treatment
of cancer with variable results, most often negative. Let us rapidly
enumerate after Nitric acid, which has already been studied and is of value: Acetic acid, used internally and externally by W. Owens; Carbolic acid,
whose sudden pains are terrible, the discharges putrid; this remedy
acts well, especially in ulcerating cancer of the uterine cervix, Formic acid, used in low potencies, 3x and 4x and is as good in cancer as in deforming rheumatism.
After Calcarea iodata, Calcarea oxalica, Kali iodatum, Kali arsenicum, Kali cyanatum, Plumbum iodatum—already cited above—let us indicate Cinnabaris,
the value of which Dr. LeTellier recently pointed out to me when used
in the 3c alternating with Thuja 6 in the cancroids of the face
(following his personal practice, after having observed a case of Dr.
Conan, Sr.). Carboneum sulphuratum is also useful in neuritis and paralyses; Ova tosta used for the cancer pains and warts; Arsenicum bromatum in the indurated tumors with weakness and eruptive or ulcerating tendency; Antimonium chloridum in mucosal cancers with great prostration.
Other Remedies.
GALIUM
APARINE: Incomplete pathogenesis. Ulcerated cancers and nodular tumors
of the skin and tongue developing on the surface. Acts also on the
urinary organs (urinary lithiasis).
FULIGO LIGNI: Useful in epitheliomata of the skin and for irritated mucosa, especially uterus and scrotum. Related to Kreosotum.
HOANG-NAN:
Exhaustion and vertigo. Capable of ameliorating the fetidity and
hemorrhages of cancer by causing an improvement in the general
condition. Related to Arsenicum album.
CINNAMONUM: Pain, hemorrhage, fetidity. Should act especially in uterine cancer.
ANANTHERUM: Ulcerated cancers, inflamed lymphatic glands. Induration of breasts or tongue or uterine cervix.
CHOLINE: Alkaloid of Taraxacum used by Adamkiewicz. Taraxacum is a good drainer of the precancerous state through its action on the liver.
CHOLESTERINUM: In hepatic cancer.
EOSINE: Burning pains of cancer, according to Woodbury.
RADIUM BROMIDE: Weakness, vertigo, tendency to cutaneous epitheliomata.
X-RAYs: According to Dr. Chiron these two remedies antidote each other. Radium bromide
antidotes the bad effects of x-ray irradiation in a patient who has
been treated too intensely. Likewise the x-rays antidote the unfortunate
effects of radium in patients who have been treated by it.
We
will note in a general way that all these medicaments ought to be
employed in low potencies, occasionally even in material doses, in
mother tincture for the vegetables. A number of them will also be used
in local applications. The indefiniteness of their pathogenic
indications will have to be compensated little by little through
clinical experience, and especially by new experimentation to be carried
out in the future.
DRAINAGE AND CANALIZATION REMEDIES
In cancer, as in tuberculosis it is essential to act in a centripetal
sense in order to retain the mineral salts and prevent malnutrition
(constant struggle against wasting). We must also neutralize or
eliminate in a centrifugal sense, the toxins elaborated in the body. That is why, in accordance with A. Nebel, we drain our patients.
Drainage
ought to be directed, if possible, via the local selective action of
certain well individualized remedies. A. Nebel has praised a profitable
remedial association used in drainage; Chelidonium, Hydrastis, Crataegus, China; Scrofularia nodosa,
in tincture, whose action compels us to retain it also in the
precancerous states. We have also noted the value of certain remedies
which appear to act well according to the hypothesis of drainage: Sedum acre, Phytolacca, the first for the general condition and the tumor, the second appearing to produce its effects in the tumor class.
First Cooper, then LeHunte Cooper, showed the value of the action of homeopathic remedies
administered in material doses, one or two drops of a well prepared
tincture which have a selective action on certain regions or viscera.
That is why we ought to indicate here, more especially, the local selective action of homeopathic remedies in cancer. We have arranged the following table which is prepared for additions and modifications that are always possible.
LIPS: Condurango
TONGUE:
KALI CYANATUM (inconstant action; note that the saliva contains small
quantities of potassium ferrocyanate): SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM, Galium aparine.
PHARYNX: Cistus canadensis
ESOPHAGUS: Condurango
STOMACH: Carbo animalis, Condurango, Hydrastis, Lycopodium, Kali bichromicum
PYLORUS and DUODENUM: ORNITHOGALUM
INTESTINES: CONDURANGO, CARBO ANIMALIS, ARSENICUM ALBUM, Sedum repens, Petroleum
CAECUM: Ornithogalum
SIGMOID COLON and RECTUM: RUTA, SCROFULARIA NODOSA, SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM
ANUS: Condurango
LIVER: CHOLESTERINUM, LYCOPODIUM, PHOSPHORUS, Choline
PANCREAS: Phosphorus
UTERUS: AURUM MURIATICUM NATRONATUM, KREOSOTUM, Cinnamonum, Sepia
BREASTS: ASTERIAS RUBENS, CONIUM, CARBO ANIMALIS, HYDRASTIS, SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM, Plumbum iodatum, Thuja
TESTICLES: AURUM METALLICUM
SCROTUM: Fuligo ligni
SKIN: SCROFULARIA NODOSA, CONDURANGO, GALIUM APARINE, ABSENICUM ALBUM, THUJA, CINNABARIS, Petroleum, Kali arsenicum, Radium bromide
EYE: CONDURANGO (lids)
PERIOSTEUM: Ruta, Symphytum, Phosphorus
LYMPHATIC GLANDS in general: Carbo animalis
GLANDS in general: Scrofularia nodosa, Iodium, Calcarea fluorica
FACE: THUJA, CINNABARIS
NECK: Cistus canadensis, Mercurius (parotids)
In
a general way we must note that all treatment whose object it is to
ameliorate the functions of the various glands in the body, and
especially the liver, shall constitute in itself a therapy, of effective
drainage against the danger of cancer. lt can even ameliorate the state
of an inflamed cancer case. That is why we must not neglect the value
of organotherapy
in this question, although in the tumor phase glandular extracts can
hardy act favorably anymore. The same does not apply to the
precancerous. Let us especially note the need to achieve good hepatic
function, liver drainage in its biliary and centrifugal functions as
well as in its endocrinal and humoral work. Taraxacum, Chelidonium, Carduus marianus, Cholesterinum,
etc., all the draining and canalizing remedies of the liver will play a
very important part in the precancerous state if they are judiciously
prescribed.
It
is also possible that in this case the deficiency of certain mineral
salts can be compensated by a therapy depending on the addition to the
daily alimentary regime of this or that product. We must study here not
only the disturbances of metabolism of magnesium, but of calcium, sodium and potassium
as well. In order do this it is not necessary to give high doses of
magnesium salts, for under the pretext of combating a possible cancer
one would too often provoke the appearance a very bad subacute or
chronic nephritis.
B. Local Treatment
We
must not neglect local treatment in cancer. In the struggle against the
body and the tumor, the destruction of the latter, when this is
possible, will naturally benefit the patient. Homeopaths would be
mistaken to deny it. Certain officials deceive themselves by placing
their confidence only in this single extirpating or destructive therapy.
Operative
intervention, judicious and so beneficial when it is precocious and not
very mutilating; radiotherapy or curietherapy is a two-edged sword
which must be cautiously used following long clinical experience and in
very distinct cases (radium for tongue and cervix, epitheliomata of
skin, etc.). Homeopathy and its doctrine ought not to drive us to such a
degree of sectarianism that we should wish to deny them. That would be
an error. We ought only to combat their excessive use. Each time it can
be done let us choose electrocoagulation, whose practice is free from so many dangers and reverses.
But
we must know well the value of certain of our remedies, especially
vegetables, used locally by means of baths or compresses containing the
mother tinctures.
Their action is such that excluding the specific type malignancy or the
anatomopathological form of the tumor (spino or basal cell) the single
act of local treatment will be able to change completely our prognosis
in the different neoplasms.
From the morphological point of view let us consider cancer. lt can be external or internal. External, more accessible, it is then more accessible to our compresses soaked in the mother tinctures. The cancer can be on the surface.
On the surface it especially affects the mucosa or the skin; it extends
in two dimensions above all. In the third dimension it ravages the
glands and its increase in volume will be the cause for a more rapid and
grave fatality. Our local treatment will act preferentially on the
cancer which is directly accessible on the surface, tongue, skin,
breasts, stomach, cervix, rectum.
According
to the cases of our personal experience, we sprinkle on a moist
compress, preferably flannel of double thickness, several drops (v, x,
xx) of a judiciously chosen tincture. After dressing (non-absorbent
cotton and bandage) which is renewed one to three times daily, will
diminish the surface and volume of the tumor. Its consistence will be
changed, the neoplasm will become softer. Sometimes it will even
ulcerate in order to better eliminate a part of its excretions. The
beneficial action will also be able to extend to the glands.
The tinctures we most often use are: Sedum repens, Phytolacca, Scrofularia nodosa, Hydrastis (all cancers); Condurango, Ornithogalum, Conium (stomach), Conium (breast), Calendula (ulcerated cancers). I have not much experience with Sempervivum tectorum, Galium aparine, Symphytum, but we must not neglect them either.
ISOPATHIC METHODS AND SPECIFIC NOSODES
For
several years the tendency has been to discover distinctly in cancer
as in other diseases, a specific treatment at the base of which are
organisms or various extracts isolated from the cancerous tissues. This
tendency is followed today, not only by homeopaths but by other
colleagues as well. They have been led in this direction themselves by a
natural mental evolution. This has been in the direction of the general
homeopathic philosophy.
The
remedies proposed in this fashion have been numerous. We shall attempt
to give an almost complete list of them with some brief explanations of
their fields and indication.
Specific Methods
1. Homeopathic potencies of cancerous fluids have been made for a long time: Epitheliomine (extract of epithelioma), Scirrhinum (extract of scirrhus), Carcinosine (extract of any cancer). The results obtained have been inconstant and variable.
2. More interesting is the work of Cahis of Barcelona, who has studied this question a great deal and who used Cancero-toxin administered according to a special scale of potencies, or again Pan-Cancro (we shall be very thankful to Dr. Cahis if he would be willing, providing his health permits, to send us some articles of his Homeopathic Testament with his very original reflections and explanations of his method).
3.
Attempts have been made to isolate one or more cancer organisms and to
prescribe them in homeopathic dilutions. That the isolated organisms may
perhaps be only witnesses or saprophytes or profiteers
in the tumor, rather than its deep and real cause, is not the question.
lt is not less true than in certain cases products of this kind show
themselves to be efficacious. lt is to M. Nebel that we owe our Micrococcin (Doyen’s Micrococcus in the 30th, 200th and higher) and to Joseph Roy his Oscillococcin.
The latter often acts with great benefit in those predisposed to cancer
but it is dangerous and can aggravate the confirmed cancer cases, even
according to the author. On the other hand, Micrococcin has often a really beneficial action, if not durable, at least temporary and distinct, on the weight and general condition.
The
optimal potency would seem to be the 200th. It is not necessary to
repeat it more often than once every two or three months. Before that the patient ought be well drained. He ought to receive regularly also, at ten, fifteen or twenty day intervals, his constitutional remedy.
4. Dr. Nebel uses especially in cancer potencies his Onkomyxa
(preferably the 4th, subcutaneously). One can learn through the book
he has published the gist of his thoughts on this subject.
5.
The employment of potencies of blood in cancer or precancer cases has
been thought of; Following Roger, Joseph Roy, the first in France, used individual blood therapy.
J. Roy has now abandoned this practice, finding it dangerous and of
only transient action. In my opinion the truth is perhaps here in a
golden mean; believe neither in a marvelous therapeutic action of a
miraculous panacea nor in the converse. lt is certain that one ought to
be very cautious about using potencies of blood from cancer cases.
Aggravations are to be feared. We have also been witnesses, however, to
beautiful ameliorations. lt would be necessary to be able to isolate
from the blood the really homeopathic principle which is capable of
curative action; a principle which ought to be restrained, neutralized
unfortunately by other substances, other forces. Clinical experience is
the only method capable of judging the results of this method and not,
in our opinion, philosophical concepts, which were conceived a priori.
Since then J. Roy has preferred to use isotherapy of young and healthy blood,
of which we have no personal experience. Now it would seem to veer more
towards organotherapy. In the same sense, Guild has previously used
serum-vaccines with variable results.
6. Rubens-Duval had the idea of using globulin extracts from cancers. This is his proteinotherapy
described by himself in this revue. His results are very encouraging
and impressive and the indicated dilutions are distinctly homeopathic.
7.
Following many authors, Cuvier and Carrere have recently re-attacked
the question of treatment with tumor extracts and have some very
interesting results.
Non-Specific Nosodes
1. Psorinum is often used by homeopaths in the cancerous or the precancerous as a constitutional remedy.
2.
In England, Bach and Dishington have used their nosodes taken from
cultures of intestinal organisms which are nonlactose fermenters; Gaertner, Morgan, Dysentericus, Proteus, are proposed. Here are their indications:
In carcinoma: Morgan and Dysenterius
In sarcoma: Morgan and Gaertner
The Gaertner bacillus appears to act clearly on the indurated tumors, especially abdominalis, when the stool analysis reveals the presence of this organism. The 30th is the preferable potency.
In other cancer cases, Proteus
has seemed to be much indicated. We have not had much experience in
France with these remedies; the organisms they individualize are,
besides, only rarely met with in the intestines of our compatriots
outside of cases of bacillary dysentery.
3. Schlegel of Tubingen often uses Tuberculinum and Syphilinum in the cancerous. Cooper also used Tuberculinum. In a similar fashion, depending on the etiology, or terrain, Medorrhinum (gonorrhoeal nosode) has been prescribed, or Malandrinum (glanders nosode; Cooper indicated it in cancer).
4. Starting from philosophical and metaphysical ideas, Rudolf Steiner noted that the mistletoe (Viscum album)
ought to be a real specific remedy in cancer. That is why the
Anthroposophists, including Kaelin, use different kinds of mistletoe for
the cancerous. The results obtained should be extremely encouraging.
The blood of the patient is gradually diluted in glass cylinders and
rises up a length of filter paper; at the height of its ascent he
describes special figures which determine whether or not cancer exists
and also its factor of gravity. Potencies of mistletoe are capable of
modifying these results in the sense of reestablishing the natural
formula. One employs dilutions 50/100 of the plant, from 1 to 28 in
progressively increasing doses, which is the converse of classical
homeopathy. We only know the action of Viscum album
in renal sclerosis and Bright’s disease with hypertension. lt would be
necessary to take up again Kaelin’s experience. I had the honor of
assisting at this work at Arlesheim in 1929 and it appeared very
interesting to me. Reports of this appeared in the revue Natura.
CONCLUSION
How are cancer cases to be treated at the present time?
Let us briefly indicate how a modern homeopath can and ought to treat a
cancer patient each time medical treatment is necessary or only
possible.
1. The precancerous state:
One ought systematically to search for the existence of a tendency to
cancer in every subject over forty years. Were there any cancer cases
in the parents or family? This is very important as this has been
demonstrated in the systematic examination we never fail to make.
Was there syphilis or gonorrhoea, or repeated vaccinations or even a former psoric, tuberculinique or tuberculous state?
All these morbid manifestations appear often in different degrees; the
first two especially predispose to malignancy. Do there exist certain
signs of the precancerous state such as yellow spots on the skin, naevi
(signs of Thuja),
or again, a disturbed mental state through the morbid fear of cancer?
Truthfully, these symptoms have but a reduced value because of their
frequency, or better still, we must consider all patients today as being
precancerous if they are matured. Cancer is at most a precipice which
all ought compulsorily to scale at a certain time in life and from which
the unfortunate fall….. In spite of all affirmations, unfortunately,
cancer can very well appear even in subjects seriously or regularly
followed. What is more important is to appreciate the general vitality
of the subject.
We must fear cancer following a period of marked weakness,
general or localized atony in the susceptible which can present the
feared tumor, hepatic insufficiency with induration and swelling of the
liver, changes in the attitude and appearance of the patient who stoops,
whose complexion becomes wan, the facial lines drawn. One may fear an
abdominal cancer coming with excessive and stubborn distension of the
abdomen, with loss of elasticity and resistance of the tissues to
palpation and modifications of the percussion note. But all this
constitutes more a vague picture which leads the mind intuitively towards
the hypothesis of the menace of cancer rather than by a logical and
sure reasoning. That is why, in our opinion, one of the best signs is
simply the wasting.
Let us fear the progressive and inexplicable loss of weight in every
subject between the age of forty and fifty, and older.
That indicates a general intoxication, prelude of a palpable and
visible tumor. What we call the precancerous state includes, in large
part besides, the still microscopic existence of the tumor in the form
of some few degenerated cells.
lt would be useful to have in this case a laboratory criterion. lt is here that the Douris and Mondain blood drop test can be very useful.
Treatment
should consist in the prescription of the constitutional remedy and in
the most serious general drainage of the subjects. Results will be
excellent most often. lt will be impossible, and with truth, to affirm
that one has been able to avoid in a patient an always hypothetical
cancer; but the general impression is in favor of a favorable
prophylactic action of the scourge.
2. Cancer:
Without hoping for too much but with an absolute tenacity let us treat
the established cancer cases. If we can almost never cure it, at least
let us be able to hope in obtaining quite often a certain equilibrium, which is more or less stable, between the patient and his disease. This means a survival sometimes of five, six, ten years or more.
One
of our friends succeeded in saving thus a servant in his employ for
twelve years. She had a generalized and incurable breast cancer
surrounded by multiple glandular chains. Such cases are not rare.
Personally, we have obtained it in ten malignant breast tumors, in two
cases of cutaneous neoplasm, in three cases of gastric epitheliomata.
Half of these patients still live, some treated by us for six or seven
years. The tumors always exist, more or less diminished or as large, but
the patients are living and that is essential. We do not know if that
will last for a long time yet, but such results, though inconstant and
even rare in comparison to the total of treated cases, are all the same
encouraging.
The weight curve,
in our opinion, as in tuberculosis, is paramount to correct and
consult. The patient should be weighed each week. This curve will govern
the repetition of the constitutional remedies or the nosodes. Likewise,
the Douris and Mondain blood drop test should be regularly performed.
The weight curve will very quickly tell us the results and hopes which
one can expect from the given treatment.
We
should look after the morale of our patients. We should absolutely
avoid letting them know their disease; we should shelter them from moral
and emotional shocks.
Plenty
of food, healthful, rich in vitamins, poor in spiced and nitrogenous
elements should be given. Well prepared dishes will stimulate the
appetite essential to the gain in weight.
Cautiously,
without too much repetition, the constitutional remedies and nosodes
should be prescribed (the 200th every ten to twenty days; the 1M every
fifteen to forty days, on the average) as the specified remedies
according to the methods of Nebel, Rubens-Duval, etc.
At the same time one should give to the subject the strictly indicated homeopathic remedies and a judicious drainage should be instituted for glandular, humoral, cellular tissues. The patient should be remineralized.
One
should not forget the local state at the expense of the body. Each time
it is possible, applications of compresses soaked in mother tinctures
of well chosen plants should be employed.
The
patient should be followed with great care in order to gather the
slightest signs of change in the condition. Acting thus, we should save
the great part of these cases certain suffering and their death should
be easier. In certain cases survival should be prolonged and in other
cases, rare to be truthful we shall obtain perhaps – who knows? – the
joy of an unforeseen cure.
To
attend without sectarianism and only to cure, to be always ready to use
every method with distinctly superior results, old or new, seductive or
formidable foreign or natural, accord to general principles, to
abstract or philosophical ideas on the value of a beacon of orientation,
the last word, above all to be decided by accomplishments Flee the
charm of the dreams of false occultism, trust only the faithful and
monotonous common sense. Such shall be our guides in treating our
patients in cancer and other affections, with conscientiousness,
patience and tenacity.
Presented by Katja Schütt, Hpathy.
