CANCER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 5, 7 January 1927, Page 5

CANCER.

CAUSE OF ITS PREVALENCE. "OVER-LOADED NUTRITION." Dr. Walter W. Cliipman, of Montreal, who was recently elected president of the American College of Surgeons, told a gathering of the most eminent surgeons in the world gathered for their clinical congress in Montreal that there was a connection between modern mgtt living and cancer prevalence. "It is the over-eating or over-drinking, the over-loaded nutrition which brings inevitably a premature old age, a general lowering of resistance, and a disturbance of balance between the tissues," he said. He showed in detail how this bodv degeneration induced a precancerous state, and some local irritation set the whole process alight. He alluded to the fact that the frugal FrenchCanadian had little more than half the

death rate in 1923 of the Province ot Ontario, and pointed out that perhaps in the simpler style of living might be found the explanation. Frequency of Disease. Dr. Chipman emphasised that it is essential that the great _ frequency of cancer should be borne in and, quoting figures prepared by Frederick L. Hoffman, the American statistician, he showed that in the United States one person dies of cancer in every six and one-half minutes. He further stated that at 40 years and upwards one male out of every twelve, and one female out of every eight come to manifest this

disease. In the United States cancer is on the increase at the rate of 2.5 per cent per annum and vital statistics in Canada disclose a similar situation. In 1924 there were 6000 deaths from cancer, of which 546 were in Montreal alone. This incidence of cancer is endemic throughout the world, he stated. Dr. Chipman argued that no tissue or cell in the human body was ever at rest, cell-proliferation and cell-regression were constantly at work, and their reciprocal relations were never fixed or quiescent. The onset of senescence, and age, he said was not a matter of years, but of tissuci —a man of 40 might be actually older than one of 60 —the demand for cell-pro-duction was decreased. This decrease should be even and mutual between the tissues. Now, if by any change the cellproduction should outlast tae celldemand in any tissue, tncre would at once result an overproduction of certain cells and a loss of tissue balance. These excess cells found no work to do, and remained in consequence vegetative or embrvonic.

' It was these ''idle hands," as it were, that constituted the menace, for while thev retained the fundamental attributes of nutrition and propagation, no demand of higher function was made upon them, and so they came to form a lawless rabble within the tissue. It is probable that long-standing traumata,' chronic injuries, act locally in some way, he asserted, for, about the base, of the ulcer, the callous, the burn or the scar, there occurs a fibrosis, a premature senility in the underlying tissue. This tissue becomes less succulent and less cellular, suffers in very truth a localised old age. Here the localised old age and the chronic irritation act together. They are part and pared of the same process. Simple Life a Preventive. Dealing with the question of prevention of premature senescence, Dr. Chipman said that diet was a factor both in respect of quantity and quality and the vegetarian did not escape. The rule for cancer prevention was a simple life, of maintaining a sound mind in a diligent and useful body. The death rate from cancer was high among fat people and in contradiction to this the cancer death rate among French-Canadians is so low that it deserves special attention. In the year 1023 the cancer death rate per IOO'OOO was 90 in the province of Ontario, while in Quebec it was little more than half of this, namely, 56.0. No explanation of these facts is vouchsafed, but it mstins perhaps a simpler, a more frugal way of living.

"It is the over-eating (or the overdrinking), the overloaded nutrition, which brings inevitably a premature old age, a general lowering of resistance and a disturbance of balance between the tissues. We have indicated the way in which this body-degeneration may induce a pre-canceroue state. The remedy is not only simple, but self-evident. Early Treatment Urgent. Dr. William J. Mayo, of Rochester, Minn., Professor Robert of Alessandri, of Rome, physician to Premier Mussolini; Dr. W. Sampson Handler of London, Dr. Robert B. Greenough of Boston, and others agreed that early treatment io the first requisite. A second is a greater realisation on the part of doctors and dentists of the importance of proper diagnosis of any growth which might be malignant, and a third, prompt, radical treatment of the disease.