Medicine: Campaign of Fear?

Cancer propaganda is supposed to educate the public, but what it actually does is scare people. So said Psychiatrist Daniel Blain last week. Dr. Blain, medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, told the American Cancer Society’s annual meeting in Manhattan that its propaganda was “big club” stuff, largely based on fear. Even the warnings that are meant to be reassuring, said he, ask the layman to look for symptoms of a disease “that may be a death sentence.”

From the society’s own pamphlets, Dr. Blain culled some grim gems: “No one is safe from cancer.” “Cancer is the greatest and cruelest killer of American women between the ages of 35 and 55.” Another of its pamphlets, he said, tended to produce a “guilt complex” because it likened cancer detection to the tracking down of criminals.

The society’s symbol is certainly not designed for mental health either, said Dr. Blain. The naked sword with two snakes wrapped around the hilt (adapted from the conventional caduceus, the snake-entwined staff of the medical profession) is often pictured as “a flaming sword, further evidence of danger.” The symbol, he feared, represents the society’s general attitude and philosophy; he suggested something less frightening and more cheerful, like a helping hand.

Fear-based propaganda is a double-edged sword, said Dr. Blain. It may act in reverse and produce apathy—or it may produce panic. Does fear ever cause cancer? Not directly, thinks Dr. Blain. But he believes it possible that fear might cause stomach ulcers which, some authorities think, sometimes lead to cancer.

Officials of the A.C.S. grumbled that 95% of its ads were about progress and the possibilities of early cure. Anyway, they said, “cancerphobia” never killed anybody; cancer that is found too late for cure kills thousands every year.

Most cancer research has concentrated on what happens inside the body. The hunt should include man-made conditions outside the body, two researchers indicated. Cancer, said Dr. Charles S. Cameron, the society’s medical and scientific director, is a “disease of civilization.” Suspecting that modern city life may increase cancer, he pointed a suspicious finger at air polluted by industrial smoke, chemically treated water, chemicals used by industry. The world’s first cancer research laboratory to study the effect of environment is being established at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine in Washington, reported National Cancer Institute Director John R. Heller Jr. Its goal: investigation of “the products of modern civilization that can cause cancer.”

Can cancer be caused by a virus? Some additional tentative evidence that the answer may be yes was reported by Dr. Ryojun Kinoshita, of Japan. He experimented by inducing cancer in the stomach of rats. Then he injected abdominal fluid (ascites) resulting from the cancer into other rats. Even when malignant cells were filtered out, the fluid produced cancer. Some cancer experts at last week’s meeting pointed out that Dr. Kinoshita’s cancer-causing substance meets the classical definition of a virus—but he would not definitely call it that.