CANCER TREATMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 December 1943, Page 3

CANCER TREATMENT

CONTROL OF ONE FORM OF DISEASE.

REPORTED IN BRITAIN.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 14.

The succesful control of one form of cancer with pills of a synthetic chemical substance was disclosed by Professor Edward Charles Dodds at the annual meeting of the British Empire Cancer Campaign. He gave a clear warning that the discovery so far is confined solely to cancer of the prostate.

Professor Dodds described the results obtained from the treatment of malignant disease of the prostate with synthetic oestrogens as dramatic and striking. During the last year or so Americans had reported descriptions of the treatment of this terrible disease by the administration of substances by mouth and the subsequent- complete disappearance of the symptoms without any other treatment. “We are thankful,” the professor added, “that the reports of the American work have been completely confirmed and for the first time in the history of mankind, it is possible to state that one form of cancer has been completely controlled.”

The patient was rendered free of the symptoms by the administration of a few pills by mouth daily. On the Re-gistrar-General’s figures for 1941 it was indicated that the discovery would result in the elimination of intense suffering and death from cancer of the prostate in approximately 4000 persons annually in England and Wales alone. Whether this uncovered an entirely new field of cancer research had still to be determined, and would be investigated. Professor Dodds said that Britain and. also the Campaign could take certain credit for the discovery. The American colleagues had made the ac,'tual observations of cases but the weapon used was forged in Britain by Englishmen working directly under the influence of and with the support of the Campaign. The synthetic chemical used in the treatment was diethylstilboestrol. The Cancer Campaign’s progress in the last 10 years constituted a body of discovery so substantial as to justify a belief that the. Campaign was entering upon a new phase.