CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER

Shannon News, 17 September 1926, Page 4

CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER

HEAL, PKOGKESS MADE. It is a great mistake to suppose, as so many people suppose, that no progress hals recently been made' in can cer research, says the "Times." Tht exact opposite is the truth; cancer research has never before presented so hopeful an aspect as it presents to-day. Within the last decade it has, for example, become possible to produce the disease do novo in mice, rats, and other animals; and this single dis- ,' covery has cast, and is casting-, a flood of light on the mystery of the origin, of cancer. I Again, research work has opened the Avay to the prevention of all those cancers which are caused by prolonged contact with tars and paraffins. The number may be greater than it is • at" present realised. Jn the last few years- medical science has established bej ond doubt the fact that cancer may be caused by certain specific substances, and by other substances which have been rendered cancer-producing by exposure to great heat. It has learned, further, that various rays and certain parasitic worms are capable! of causing the disease—though i.hz re- \ cent work of Leiper has shown that : there is no connection between t his j last fact and the "cancer houses" ct j popular legend. "Cancer houses," like [ so many other reputed causes of the! disease, are a myth. j It is no mean achievement to have i-aised the study of cancer, within a' decade, to something approaching a j vantage ground of scientific accuracy. ( The work of Gye t-nd Barnard, though j it cannot yet be described as unques- i tioned, has already served as a pow- ! erful stimulus to fresh activity in j every part of the world. Nor has the] treatment of the disease been neglect- < ed during these wonderful years. Humanity owes a great deal to the; pioneer researches at the Middlesex j Hospital on the influence of radium \ and X-rays on malignant growth, and \ to the work at the same hospital on' the propogatioh of the disease along, the lympathic channels of the body. This latter work has proved of immediate utility to eve,ry surgeon, and has undoubtedly saved many lives. Moreover, a study of cancer has served to stimulate a vast number of other studies—which again help the study of cancer. . |