Cancer Is Challenge To Human Intelligence

Chronicle (Levin), 19 February 1948, Page 3

Cancer Is Challenge To Human Intelligence

v ~ Press Association)

(Per

WBLBIJNGTUjN, x eu. 15. "Tlie causes and cure of cancer present oue of the most complex problems to challenge the intelligence of niankind. A mnss'of information is gradually accumulating, but when it is considered that this .has been achieved only by the expenditure of many millions of mari-hours of patient research, it is unlikely that any inspired amateur will get a revelation," said Sir James Elliott, president of the New Zealand braneh of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, when referring to the progress of cancer research in New Zealand. • "Nevertheless," he added, "certain alleged cures are feisted on the public from time to time, with confidence and publicity. Some years ago, for instance, we heard conlident statements that the doctors were' all wrong, and that cancer of ihe lireast in women could* be cured by applying, locally, a caustic agent. "The New Zealand Government at that time set up a committee of inquiry which found that all the patients who had submitted to the alleged cure, and that alone, had diecL. "By proper methods, many cases- of cancer can be, and are cured. Others. if no t cured, have their lives proloiiged and are free from symptoms. "Therc is only oue wav at present to obtain a liigher rate of cures, and that is for patients to get advice at the earliest possible time and not adopt the attitude of 'It can't liajjpen to me. ' "As a result of the better understanding of radio activity, promoted by the investigation into, and use ot, atomic bombs for human destruction, there is now a reasonahle prospect that the use of radio activity in relatively minute doses will he increasingly henehcial in the relief of cancer. "The radio-phvsics laboratory which we maintain at the Canterbury University College," lie said, "is the sole authority iu New Zealand on radium and radou (radium gas) treatment, and is recognised as such by the Government. ' In addition, now that various elements can be made radio-aetive — they are known as isotopes — and can be ab sorbed into Ihe human svstem, 'tliis laboratory will become engaged in preparing isotopes and, it is hoped, regulating their dosage in collaboration with workers abroad for tlfe treatment uf cancer and other diseases. "Iu our laboratory in Dunedin, we have made a discoverv that a drug, which is' useful in curing some forms of goitre, will, in very much largei doses, produce cancer in animals. "This laboratory is shortly coining under the direction of Professor Bielschowski, who is leaving England thi's month. lle is a naturalised British subject, who has been working in Kng land with grea't success, and has a world-wide reputation as a cancer in-

vestigator. "AiiQtlier advance in cancer research upon which much work has been done in mauy countries is the discovery that a certain hormone greatly relieves cancer of the prostate gland. In some cases, it seems to have produced an apparent cure, or at least a prolonged relref from symptoms. "We know plenty of causes of caftcer at present and -can produce it in animals' at will, but" "fre do not yet know the underlying causation; or, in other words, what causes the underlying tendency to ,the disease that makes some people prone to it and others resistant."