CANCER CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 138, 7 March 1929, Page 13

CANCER CAMPAIGN

Sir, —At the recent conference on cancer eheld in Wellington (February 23, 1929) the valuable recommendations of Mr. Sampson Handley, of London, were heard and discussed by the Minister and senior officials of the Health Department, and representatives of the Otago Medical School and. the B.M.A. As a member of the Cancer Research Committee of the Otago University, and - as one of the founders of the Dunedin Hospital Radium Department, the pioneer establishment of its kind in New Zealand, may I be permitted to comment on three or four of the points raised. 1. Cancer Research: All our hospitals, large and small, all our practitioners, all . our pathologists, and all our radiologists can contribute effectively in varying degree to a comprehensive cancer survey. A system of careful and complete records,* including follow-up reports, which are of essential importance, could, without serious difficulty, or cost, be organised, and the results analysed either by the Health Department or by a specially appointed committee. Laboratory research, however, is bn a different footing altogether. It necessitates ample accommodation, animal houses, elaborate equipment and .specially trained personnel, and could not at present be satisfactorily undertaken anywhere else than at the spacious Medical School , the Dominion possesses at- Dunedin, where already there is the nucleus of. a' cancer research department. 2. The establishment of a cancer hospital situated possibly in Wellington as a central location, possibly in Dunedin as an adjunct to the Dominion Medical School, was recommended by Mr. Handley, the idea being that at this hospital a large number of cases of cancer could be collected from various parts of the country, and carefully studied and treated by doctors specially trained in cancer work. A new hospital of this kind, however desirable and useful it might be, would of course be costly and may not eventuate for many long years to come. Therefore in the meantime it ‘would be wise to concentrate on providing special cancer clinics at each of the four main hospitals, with special consideration for Dunedin as the teaching centre. 3. Radium treatment: Here again the wisest plan seems to be the establishment of a good radium department at the four mam hospitals only, but in my opinion each of these .. should be .furnished with an emanation Outfit as well as a. supply of solid radium, so that concer sufferers at a distance, who could not be conveniently transferred to the base hospital, could be treated in their own district. The relative merits of solid radium and radium emanation are not yet settled. At a recent visit to radium institutes abroad I noted that in New York emanation only -was used,' in Paris and • US t e s , S 0 I , d radium only was used, and m .London both emanation and solid radium were used. Tl ?® Ota f° ? ntl Southland muddle over radium: At the last appeal for funds to equip the Dunedin Hospital with a modern and efficient radium and deep Xray therapy department for the treat- “ -A? f fbJ I c Can < C .. e T^ ase , s in the southern part of the South Island, a sufficient sum was raised in Otago and Southland to purchase both the solid radium and the XT 0 ”* ° u | fit l hat wouia ha v e been But X C h o er i f ? r -i the u eeds of Southland, out the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley, and Southland is

not being so catered for. Owing to the attitude adopted by the Southland contributors on the one hand, and the Government on the other, the Southland contribution of £3600 (unsubsidised) has never been paid over to the Dunedin Hospital. Southland stipulated that the money plus subsidy was to be spent on radium which was to be loaned only to the Dunedin Hospital. This stipulation introduced difficulties. The Government declined to subsidise the Southland fund, and Southland held on to the money, which has now been invested as a trust for the benefit of Southland cancer sufferers, but which has not been dealt with as the donors originally intended. Consequently Dunedin is still without its emanation outfit, and if any centre in the Dominion should have one,' it is Dunedin. At present Wellington is the only city so favoured, and from personal inquiry I judge. that the emanation plant there is giving very satisfactory results. —I am, etc., _ ' L. E. BARNETT. Hampden, Otago, March 2.