CANCER DEATHS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 9

CANCER DEATHS

EARLY ATTENTION BY DOCTORS URGED “MILLIONS OF SUFFERERS NEED NOT DIE” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) . NEW YORK, April 17. The American Cancer Society said today that millions destined to have cancer need not die if the resources for combating the disease were better utilised.

Id its annual report, the society says that as a result of the growing number of older people in the United States and the present rate of occurrence, the disease will strike one in four Americans, or 40,000,000 persons now living. “Today only about a quarter of those affected by cancer survive the disease,” the report says. “But it is believed that at least half, or twice as many, might be saved with the knowledge already ours, if only we will use it. “A primary requirement is that individuals seek medical attention much earlier than in past years.” The society says that each year 10.000 women are now being cured of cancer; 10 years ago they would have died.

This gain is credited, not only to scientific advances, but also to the fact that many thousands of American women are now making cancer examinations a part of their lives. Lung cancer, the report says, is increasing markedly and very rapidly. “It is the only form of cancer which shows so definite a tendency,” the report says. It adds that in 1954 approximately 20,000 men died of lung cancer, 17 per cent, of all the male cancer deaths.