LUNG CANCER

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27752, 1 September 1955, Page 11

LUNG CANCER

Antibiotics May Be Cause (Rec. 11 p.mj LONDON, August 31. Two British bacteriologist? suggested yesterday that the increase in lung cancer may be due in part to a wider use of antibiotics. Dr. B. A. Meyer and Dr. J. D. Benjafleld said in an article in the current issue of the “Medical Press” that since antibiotics were first introduced into England, lung cancer increased 10-fold. They said it w’as estimated that tho continuing increase would be at the rate of about 8 per cent, a year. “It is perhaps more than a strange coincidence that statistically there appears to have been a steady increase in cancer, especially lung cancer, from 1935, which has progressed with mounting rapidity to the present date. “It was in 1935 that sulphanilamide therapy was born, and many other preparations have since been introduced which all act similarly,” they said. Statistics had shown that town dwellers were more affected by cancer of the lung than rural dwellers, and primitive races of Africa and Asin, showed no increase in the incidence . of cancer. Town dwellers had better facilities for medical treatment, and because antibiotics were in vogue they were freely given, they said. It was therefore possible that a contributory factor to the increase in cancer* might be the destruction of certain bacteria by interfering with' the defence mechanism of the body. Dr. Meyer and Dr. Benjafield advocated more scientific use of antibiotics and the addition of an anti < virus agent.