SKIN CANCER

Hokitika Guardian, 25 September 1929, Page 5

SKIN CANCER

PREVALENCE IN AUSTRALIA. PROBLEM DISCUSSED BY MEDICAL CONGRESS. AUCKLAND, September 23. The New Zealand doctors who returned by the Aorungi from the Australian and New Zealand Medical Congress in Melbourne spoke in; enthusiastic terms of the results achieved; “Some very excellent work was done, especially in regard to cancer and maternal mortality, and we have all re-, turned with benefit from the experience,” remarked Dr. E. H. Williams, of Dunedin. There*.was an attendance of 12U0, compared with 800 who attended the last Congress he'd in Dunedin three years ago, /and about 40 New Zeal and'doctors weT^ : -'hiresent during the deliberations. The inroads of skin cancer, which is more prevalent in Australia and New Zealand than, in any other countries in the world—a. phenomenon due to •the' exposure of strong sun--light on European skins—formed an interesting topic in the section on dermatology. Dr H. W. Wilson skin specialist, of Auckland, who sat in this section, expressed surprise on his return at tile widespread character of this disease in Australia.. Blue-eyed, fnir-hairud Irish,.. wJjre particularly prone to the complaint, and the most vital spot was the tip of the nose, which seemed to catch the sun’s rays when the rest of the fase was shaded by the hat. “There is a colossal amount of skin cancer and degenerative changes in the skin in Australia,” he said, “and 1 suppose there are more cases of it in Sydney than anywhere else in the world. It is peculiar to people of European extraction and there is a good deal of it in New Zealand.” Sun-bath-ing, he added, was not dangerous unless carried to excess. Skin cancer usually attacked the face which suffered from sun exposure more than any other part of the body. The disease was treated by n variety of means according to type of severity. Diseases of children occupied an important section of the Congress, and interesting reports were received on the results of research experiments with serum for treatment of infantile pniolysis. Dr W. S. Wallis of Rotorua, who was attached to the orthopaedic section, stated on his return that the work accomplished had been very informative.