CANCER.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1926, Page 1

CANCER.

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC. AUCKLAND, April 29. The fact that cancer can he cured if taken early enough, that it can, in fact lie “flipped in the hud,” lias caused much interest locally, and the public has been asking, if this is so, why the medical men do not inform the people as to the early symptoms of the disease, so that advantage can betaken of vulnerability of youthful cancer. This‘public demand has led the Auckland section of the British -Medical Association to abandon its traditional policy of reserve and to undertake to supply lecturers who will speak on Lhis vital subject. Similar educational campaigns have achieved great success in the United States, and details have been given by Dr T. J. Hughes, Medical Officer of Health, on the authority of Dr A. Young, of Edinburgh. Speaking of the free hospital clinics, which formed part of a wide scheme o! cancer propaganda in America, the , latter had stated that the results were so striking that the time was clearly ripe for consideration of their value in Great Britain. Two factors were to lie emphasised. One was the very consid-. erable chance of cure by surgery and radiation treatment in the early stages.! This had been proved conclusively, and was especially- obvious in accessible cancer. Thus the incidence of five-year cures after operation where cancer had not spread to the glands was—in the lip, 90 to 95 per cent; in the breast, 70 per cent; and in tho tongue, 62 per cent. In cervical cancer the results were equally striking. The second point to he emphasised was that the very considerable powers possessed by tho medical profession were largely frustrated by the fact that the majority of cases were seen only in the later stage. When the causes underlying this fact were considered, there could he no doubt that the most important was ignorance on the part of the public of the signs of early cancer, as also its curability in tho early stages. Thus few women knew that a lump on the breast was dangerous, and that in women over forty years of age it implied cancer in SO per cent of cases. Few men knew the dangers of : a lion-healing sore on the lip- or tho tongue. Few people, too. knew that cancer in it's beginnings, and during its curable stages, was merely a painful ailment. After allowing for the cures actually accomplished by surgery and radiation

treatment, it has been computed that in males at least one-third, and in females at least one-half of all the cancers arc capable of early removal and cure. Referring to the need of cancer propaganda in New Zealand. Dr Hughes stated that a pamphlet entitled, “Cancer: Is it Curable?” was published by the Department of Health in 1916, and was circulated to all officers of the Department in the Dominion, to bring the causes of the disease before tho public. It was also forwarded to all Hospital Boards which were acting as local authorities for infectious diseases