WAR ON CANCER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3909, 21 February 1929, Page 3

WAR ON CANCER.

AN ANNUAL EXAMINATION. The Hon. Dr. W. E. Collins, M.L.C., who attended the recent International 'Conference on Gancer, held in London, as the representative of the New Zealand University, said during the discussion on cancer at the Medical Conference at Wellington that the importance of yearly medical examination of each individual was emphasised by Sir Berkley Monynikan, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and others. Dr. Collins added that he urged fhis in a speech which he made in the Legislative Council about ten years ago, when lie suggested that each individual should be examined once a year, preferably on his or her birthdayHe felt sure that if this procedure was generally adopted very few, if any, women would die of cancer of the breast; that very few persons, if any. would die of cancer of the skin, lips, or tongue; and that cases of uterine and intestinal cancer could be earlier diagnosed and dealt with.

CURE POSSIBLE IN EARLY STAGES. Wellington,. February 19. In an address to the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association to-day, AH. W. Sampson Handley, an eminent London surgeon and authority on cancer, said that, if the public, could be induced to seek prompt advice for suspicious symptoms, the cure of cancer would become a very comimon event. It must 'be confessed that the efforts of medicine to control cancer have not yet been successful, nor could they be expected to succeed while public opinion, with the support of some doctors, maintained that cancer was incurable, and turned from the subject with horror and disgust. People who suspected that they 1 had the disease concealed their condition and in verv many cases only sought medical advice when the disease had passed the curable stage and when an operation could do no more than case their sufferings or prolong their lives.

Taking a large number of his private patients lie found the delay between the time the patient first noticed something wrong and the time when medical advice was first sought amounted to an average of six months. The menace o-f cancer to the human family was no more dreadful than other menaces that medicine had faced and finally overcome. The public must be taught the elementary facts about cancer and learn to be on the lookout for early signs. 'They must realise that early cancer was curable when it occurred in accessible positions, and that the worst pain connected with most operations for cancer was the pain of anticipation. The actual danger of the operation was no!w small. He mentioned that there was a good prospect that within the next few years' the knife would be largely superseded by the electrical method of removing cancer, perhaps (veil that radiuim treatment would in many cases replace operative treatment. The problem of cancer would not be solved without the help and support of an educated public opinion. Finance was an important aspect. The amount spent on cancer research was small in proportion to the importance of the object and results already obtained. It must be conducted on an adequate scale.