COMBATING CANCER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1077, 15 September 1930, Page 10

COMBATING CANCER

FATALISM OF SUFFERERS NOT JUSTIFIED? PROSPECTS OF RECOVERY I Cancer fatalism —the belief that anyone stricken with the disease must die, was deprecated by Mr. Kenneth Mac- : kenzie, chairman of the Auckland com- : mittee of the. New Zealand Division of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, in an address in the Majestic Theatre last evening. The lecturer, whose address was given under the auspices of j the Rationalist Association. quoted j statistics in support of his argument that the results of the treatment ot cancer in the early stages were more encouraging than the public believed. A statistical research conducted by the British Ministry of Health into the treatment of cancer cases, he said, revealed that, of sufferers in whom the disease was entirely confined to the breast when seen by a doctor, 70 to 80 per cent, were free of cancer in five years after operative or other treatment. In cases where the disease had extended beyond the breast before treatment was commenced, only 20 per ! cent, survived at the end of a similar period. Therefore, where treatment was given in the early stages of the growth there were four chances in five of recovery. CAMPAIGN FOR FUNDS Discussing the public campaign for funds, Mr. Mackenzie said that it was j prompted by the mortality rate from cancer in the Dominion, the latest figures showing that the death-rate was higher than ever before. The committee hoped to raise some thousands of pounds in the City and province. The local organisation was practically committed to contributing 20 per cent, to the central New Zealand fund, and its use would be determined by the Dominion executive, on which the four provinces were equally represented, A portion of the fund was being allotted to cancer research at Otago University, though many Auckland medical men considered this was inadvisable, preferring that the institutions in older countries should undertake investigations. Eighty per cent, of the fund collected in Auckland would be used in this province. One way in which it was proposed to use the money was by I giving publicity to facts which it was I believed would help the public and the | medical profession.