“GET IN EARLY”

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 196, 16 May 1930, Page 8

“GET IN EARLY”

WIGHT AGAINST CANCER INCREASE IN DOMINION “Drinking very hot tea, smoking broken pipes, and the irritation of jagged teeth are simple things that can cause cancer,” said Dr. J. S. Elliott, chairman of the New Zealand cancer campaign, in a public address at the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last night. He described the insidious manner in which cancer attacks human beings, and quoted figures to show the grave increase in cancer cases in New Zealand. “Of the people in England who live to thirty years of age one in seven will ultimately die of cancer,” said Dr. Elliott. “Cancer is increasing in New Zealand, and that in spite of advanced methods of treatment. The incidence of cancer is increasing, though the death-rate may not have risen. On a low computation there are a million deaths in the world annually from cancer. Cancer in New Zealand is responsible for more deaths than heart disease. Tuberculosis, which was once as great a bugbear in New Zealand as cancer is to-day, is decreasing, but cancer is increasing. 'Last year 1374 people died of cancer in New Zealand.” Vegetarians Not Immune. It was not true, said Dr. Elliott, that meat-eating people alone became victims of the disease, and vegetarians did not; it had not been proved that vegetarians were less prone to it than meat-eaters, although it might be so. Black people did not suffer from cancer to such an extent as did white people, but it was to be remembered that whites lived longer than blacks, and cancer came practically late in life. Cancer was not infectious, as many people thought. No microbe causing it had been found. It did not begin as cancer, but it supervened and developed on something going on for a long time. It began life before it could be diagnosed as cancer. Forms of irritation caused cancer with some people, but not with others. Dr. Elliott went on to deal with discoveries of research into the subject and said that in that connection Sir Ernest Rutherford, who was one of New Zealand’s most famous sons and one of the greatest scientists of to-day, had altered the whole conception of mankind in regard to both living and dead matter. Cancer was a subject affecting the individual and the whole community. It was the most serious problem of medical science, curtailing as it did the length of human life. Cancer followed the ascending scale of life and man, being highest in the scale, paid for his status and higher civilisation. Research was fighting a dreadful enemy, but medical men and scientists could do nothing unless they had the help and co-operation of the Imty. Delaying Too Long. There was a dangerous tendency on the part of people suffering from a growth to hope for the best and to leave things too long. They thought they, could not have cancer because they were in no pain, but cancer did not cause pain until in its later stages. In spite of what the medical profession had tried to tell the public about “getting in early” with cancer, the advice was disregarded, and most women coming under operation for cancer had had it six or eight months. Those women then blamed the operation, whereas it was their own hesitancy that was at fault. Even now there were hundreds of thousands of cancer cases in Australia and New Zealand cured because the sufferers had got in early. A branch of the British Empire cancer campaign had been formed and it had everything to enC °“Too long we have been appalled by this chimera, this skeleton in the cupboard,” said Dr. Elliott, “and we must face it boldly. That is. not. a picture merely on the canvas of imagination. It seems to me this most complex and baffling problem of them all,, before long, if not overcome, will bo elucidated to such an extent that the hope we have now will be largely increased. . The chairman at the meeting was the Hon. Dr. W. E. Collins. A vote of thanks was accorded the speaker on the motion of Mr. C. H. Chapman, M.P.