CANCER RESEARCH.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19786, 26 November 1929, Page 5

CANCER RESEARCH.

TO-MORROW'S PUBLIC MEETING. Present indications point to a representative attendance at the meeting to be held at 4.30 to-morrow afternoon in the Civic Theatre to discuss the formation of a division of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society representing the northern portion of the South Island. . Tho necessity for cancer research js not, perhaps, recognised by many outside the medical profession. \et on page 160 of the Official Year Book for 1929 appears the following: •'Cancer is annually responsible for more deaths in New Zealand than can be assigned to any cause other than diseases of the heart. The increasing prevalence of cancer is causing no little concern m the Dominion, as indeed It is throughout the civilised world." An interesting graph shows the decrease in deaths from tuberculosis and the increase in those from cancer. In 1927 there were 1324 deaths from cancer in the Dominion, a proportion of 9.63 per 10,000 persons; both number and rate are slightly lower than in 1926. Of the deaths of males over 40 years of age one in every seven is from cancer: of the deaths of females one out of every six over 40 years of age is from the same cause. At to-morrow afternoon's meeting the speakers will be the Mayor (.Mr J. K. Archer). Dr. H. T. D. Adand. Dr. P. Clennell Fenwick. and Sir Lindo Ferguson (Dean of the Medical Faculty of the Tniversity of Otago), who will show a film demonstrating the growth of the cancer cell and the effect of radium on the cell growth. The object of the camnaign is to provide for the accurate investigation of the causes, results, and treatment of cancer and similar malignant diseases.