Cancer is Curable if Caught in Time

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 592, 19 February 1929, Page 1

Cancer is Curable if Caught in Time

PUBLIC MUST HELP SPECIALIST'S ASSURANCE Press Association x WELLINGTON, To-day. In an address to the New Zealand branch of the B.M.A. to-day. Mr. W. Sampson Handley, an eminent London surgeon and an 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 common event. It must be confessed, lie added, that the efforts of medicine to control cancer had 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 had the disease concealed their condition, and in very many cases only sought medical advice when the disease had passed the curable stage, and when an operation could do no more than ease their sufferings or prolong their lives.

Taking a large number of his private patients, he found that 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 of cancer to the human family was no more dreadful than that of other diseases 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 oc- i curred 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 now small. ITe mentioned that there was a good prospect that within the next few years the knife would be largely superseded by an electrical method of removing cancer. Radium treatment would in many cases replace operative treatment. The problem of cancer would not be solved without the help and support of 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 the results already obtained. It must be conducted on an adequate scale. Mr. William Sampson Handley, a Harley Street cancer specialist, has been honorarv surgeon of the Middlesex Hospital since 1916, lecturer in its medical school and surgeon to its Cancer Charity. He was formerly Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology in the Royal College of Surgeons of England. His degrees include M.D., M.S. and F.R.CSS. He is also an honorary fellow of tlia American College of Surgeons. PROCEEDINGS OPEN GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S SPEECH WELLINGTON, To-day. The annual conference of the New Zealand branch of the B.M.A. was opened to-day by the GovernorGeneral. The proceedings will continue until Friday. The president-elect, Dr. J. S. Elliott, presided. Sir Charles Fergus.,on, in a characteristic speech, said he was pres ent to show respect and to do honour to them as representatives of one of the most noble of professions, and to give expression to the appreciation all must have, not only of the magnitude of their work, hut of its importance to the country and to humanity at large.