N.Z.’S PART IN CANCER CAMPAIGN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22612, 15 April 1948, Page 4

N.Z.’S PART IN CANCER CAMPAIGN

rjMIE campaign against cancer is being waged just as relentlessly as the disease itself continues its attacks on mankind. It is too soon yet to declare, on any reliable medical authority, that doctors and scientists are on the verge of a comprehensive cure, but at the present time the position in regard to the results of both research and treatment is more hopeful than it has ever been before. The disappointment which lias probably been felt by some. people over the adverse report of the committee which in Sydney investigated the claims of Mr. Braund to have found a cure should to a large extent be assuaged by the knowledge that the study devoted to the subject by experts is steadily v'orking towards encouraging conclusions. In the meantime notice should be taken of the advice repeatedly given by the medical profession that suspicious symptoms should he reported at an early stage. By proper methods many cases of cancer can, and are, being cured. Other people, if not actually cured, have their lives prolonged and are free from symptoms. The world of science and medicine, however, will never be satisfied with the situation as it is today. Sir James Elliott recently stated in Wellington that, as a result of the better understanding of radio activity, there is now a reasonable prospect that the use of this power in relatively minute doses will be increasingly beneficial in the relief of the malady. The cause of! some forms of cancer is known. What is not known is the cause of the underlying tendency to the disease that makes some people prone to fall victim. In this respect Nature still guards her secret against all-comers. In New Zealand the field of research is not being neglected. One advance step made in Dunedin was the discovery that a certain drug, valuable in curing some forms of goitre, will, in very much larger doses, produce cancer in animals. To the layman.this may seem a somewhat negative result, but in the realm of science and medicine it is a clue to he followed up with great intensity of purpose. The prospect of further advancement must not bo ruled out. The work in the new Dunedin laboratories will doubtless be given a heartening fillip by the arrival of Dr. Bielschowsky, an eminent cancer research specialist, who has taken up the post, of director. He is a naturalised British subject who has been working in England with conspicuous success. It is a tribute to the respect in which New Zealand research is held that this doctor, whose reputation is world-wide, should have decided to take so personal an interest in the Dominion’s contribution to the campaign.