INVESTIGATION OF CANCER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2622, 21 August 1923, Page 2

INVESTIGATION OF CANCER.

DISCUSSING efforls to instruct the laity regarding flie importance of early treatment of cancer, Mr Frederick L. Iloll'man, consulting statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, has, contributed to the journal of the League of the Red Cross Societies an article advocating systematic investigation of the facts relating to the disease. lie places the mortality in the United States at 90 per 100,000—the New Zealand rate is 85—and states that while there is wide variation in different parts of the country, no study has been made to discover the explanation. Thus while the average rate increased from 74.4 in 1911 to 83.4 in 1920, the mortality in the State of California increased from 82 to 109, and that in the State of Maine from 99 to 122. In comparison with the average mortality in American cities of 99.8 in 1920, Mr Hoffman gives a list of 25 cities showing cancer mortality higher by 40 to 00 per cent., the rate in San Francisco being 101.8. Emphasising the importance of such systematic investigation as he suggests, Mr Hoffman refers to the rarity of occurrence of malignant diseases among native races. “As one who has thoroughly gone into this matter with regard to our native Indians in the south-west and certain Indian tribes in the South American tropics, particularly Bolivia, I am absolutely satisfied that malignant diseases in any form, and particularly cancer of the breast, is. extremely rare among pure native tribes, practically free from the effects of the mode of life common to so-called civilised countries. It would seem to me equally important to ascertain if possible why cancer does not occur than why it should be extremely common among other people, and possibly the former line of inquiry may yield even more encouraging results than the latter.”