GANGER CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 21636, 3 February 1934, Page 19

GANGER CAMPAIGN

RADIUM AND X-RAY TREATMENT At a meeting of the Finance and Medical Committees of the Otago and Southland Division of _ the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society held on Thursday last, reference was made to the forthcoming trip abroad of the radio therapeutist, Dr de Monchaux, who has received leave of absence for nine months from the Otago Hospital Board. Sir Louis Barnett, the chairman of the Otago Division, in speaking of the gratifying progress that is being made, said that one of the most striking and encouraging features was the remarkable and sometimes dramatic improvement in cancer cases treated by radium or X-rays or-both combined. Many patients so gravely afflicted as to bo regarded as incurable by surgical methods had been restored to comfortable existence and some had actually been apparently cured. The results were proving so promising that it was felt advisable to develop this line of cancer treatment to its highest possible degree, and the Medical Committee recommended that Dr de Monchaux should be requested to make a careful study of the recent advances in the radiological treatment of cancer that had been introduced in the main centres for this typo of research in England, the Continent of Europe, the United States of America, and Australia, and provide the Otago Division with a full report of his observations. It was further recommended that Dr do Monchaux be asked to take note of, and possibly purchase, any improved appliances or equipment that might usefully supplement the present resources of the Otago Division. This programme, as outlined, would obviously involve much extra expense, and it was thongdit nttiiior that some financial assistance should be granted to Dr de Monchaux to help him to visit all the various clinics and conferences where the desired information and experience might

be obtained—for example, in Loudon, Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich, New York, and Canberra. The Finance Committee considered these recommendations sympathetically, and, although desirous of building up a safe reserve for future contingencies, decided that the solid financial position of the division justified a grant to Dr de Monchaux of £IOO towards his extra travelling expenses, and an authority to spend an additional £IOO on auxiliary appliances, making for greater efficiency in the radiological treatment of cancer cases.