section_path: Biography/Cancer
section_name: Cancer
paragraph_text: Cancer
  
  In 1917, Freud noticed a painful lesion on the roof of his mouth, but, after it receded, did not seek medical attention. By February 1923, the growth had spread, which was when Freud identified as either leukoplakia or epithelioma brought on by his smoking habit. Reluctant to give up smoking, he initially kept his symptoms a secret. Freud later consulted the dermatologist Maximilian Steiner, who advised him to quit smoking while minimizing the lesion's implications. Shorter after, Freud met with Felix Deutsch, who was also reluctant to tell Freud that the growth was cancerous. He, too, described it as an instance of leukoplakia. Both men told Freud to give up smoking, and Deutsch told him to seek surgical treatment. Freud was treated by Marcus Hajek, a rhinologist whose competence he had previously questioned. Hajek performed an unnecessary cosmetic surgery in his clinic's outpatient department. Freud bled during and after the operation and may narrowly have escaped death. At a subsequent visit Deutsch saw that further surgery would be required but did not tell Freud he had cancer because he was worried that Freud might commit suicide.