CANCER.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20492, 10 March 1932, Page 11

CANCER.

+ ATTITUDE OF PUBLIC. COMMENT BY SURGEON. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELE3BAM.) AUCKLAND, March 9. | Comments on the attitude of the public to cancer, and how people may help in research were made at a public meeting by Mr C. H. Fagge, vice-presi-dent of the Koyal College of Surgeons. "It appears to me," said Mr Fagge, "that there always has been a curious sense of modesty in the public mind in relation to cancer. So many people attempt to conceal the idea that their relatives suffered or died from cancer. There is nothing disgraceful about it, so why conceal it? One of the difficulties we have is to dispel that idea, so widely held by lay people, that any disease which is not painful cannot be cancer. One cannot too often insist that in its early stages cancer is painless." Many people thought that cancer was associated only with advancing age. Although more often associated with age, it did and in its malignant forms, the young. There was not the slightest evidence that cancer was in any sense hereditary. Every medical practitioner must have known people who made themselves miserable because their parents or grandparents had suffered from cancer. Need for Research. "I have not any very helpful views from the other side of the world that the methods of dealing with cancer are any better than they are here," said Mr Fagge. "I do not think we can hope for many years to arrive at anything approaching a cure. Until we know more about its causation, how can we hope to cure it? There is a great need for research, and I wish to ask

you to support the campaign because unless we have more knowledge we are not likely to arrive at any close understanding of its causation. Each one can do something to help. If you only help, somebody who is suffering from something they do not understand to go to their doctor, you will have done something to forward the work of the British Empire Cancer Campaign." Dr. J. S. Elliott, chairman of the cancer campaign, said that in Wellington £ 13,000 had been raised for research. Christchurcli had raised £21,000, Duncdin £25,000, and Auckland only £SOOO. Wellington possessed 750 milligrams of radium, Christchurch 659, Dunedin 875, and Auckland only 350. If people did not help themselves the campaign could not help them. .