THE CANCER PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 155, 1 July 1919, Page 4

THE CANCER PROBLEM.

The failure of medical science to solve the problem of cancer has been the greatest disappointment in medicine during recent years. In every country there has been investigation of the problem. In Britain there has been continuous research for years past by men who, have given their whole time to it, yeti the director of the work has had to admit year after year that comparatively little progress has been made. The trouble about cancer as compared with another great scourge, tuberculosis, is that it does not decrease with improvements in conditions of living. The deathrate -otn consumption can be brought

down by better housing, fresh air, and better food, but cancer flourishes where the standard Of living is high. Probably there is no country in the world where the average standard is higher than in New Zealand, yet Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie pointed out in hie very valuable lecture last night that cancer was increasing alarmingly here. While tiie death-rate from tuberculosis was reduced from 13 to C.S in forty years, the cancer rate jumped from two to nearly nine. Cancer is now responsible for more deaths in Xew Zealand than any other cause except organic -disease of the heart. The situation is therefore very serious, and everybody should study the figures] of it, and pay close attention to what'

Dr. Mackenzie says. Fortunately, Dr. Mackenzie was able to hold out good hope of cure so long as the disease was treated early. His stress on this point was the most important part of his lecture, for while the world may have to wait a long time for investigation to discover the whole truth about the causation of cancer, and And out how it can be prevented and cured, in the meantime the thing to do is to give the doctors ] every possible opportunity of curing the disease by existing methods. Dr. Mac- J kenzie declares that the idea that cancer is incurable is a harmful popular fallacy, I "for year by year there was a steady increase in the number of permanent 1 cures by surgical operation, ranging from 20 per cent, in the less favoured regions to 00 per cent, in the most favourable j regions." It should be universally noted . that the success of surgical treatment of , cancer is "entirely dependent on the I staje the disease had reached when tho surgeon saw the patient for the firs., j time." Unfortunately, cancer in its early ! and curable stage does not cause pain jor symptoms of ill-health, so that it is necessary to teach people how to recognise it. This recognition seems to be I fairly easy in most cases, and at any rate the general advice can be given that I in any case where there is the slightest j suspicion a doctor should be seen at once. Dr. Mackenzie cited the steps taken by the Portsmouth City Council to instruct people in the recognition of developments that may lead to cancer. This advice has been widely quoted, and. if we remember rightly, something was done a few years.

a<ro, ofiicialk- or unofficially, to hrin;j it before the Xew Zealand public. It is ■ clear that more educative work must bo j clone in Xew Zealand, directed by the Jlealth Department, and carried out by them and by local bodies and such organisations as tlie St. John Ambulance Associution. If oven as much publicity was given to the symptoms of cancer and the necessity for early treatment as has 'been given to the part played by freah air in the treatment of consumption, a considerable improvement would 'probably result. Cancer is a terrifyinp; disease, and there may be many j people who avert their eyes from it be- j 'cuii.se they regard a cancer diagnosis as sentence of death. This attitude should bo abandoned, and the problem faced with courage and determination. There is not much hope that so small a country art New Zealand can contribute greatly to the world's investigation of the. disease, but there is no reason why research ' here should not be co-ordinated with research elriewhere. The fact that the disease is increasing alonj; with our material prosperity is important in the j general study of the problem. But we| can do ac much as, and perhaps more than, any othe. country in spreading all available information about the disease, so that cases may be treated early and the death-rate lowered.