CANCER SCOURGE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11539, 16 January 1932, Page 7

CANCER SCOURGE

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL HABITS. PROGRESS IN PREVENTIVE WORK. - Sdnfe i. remarkable facts about the • incidence of cancer among different classes ; of the population in England and :in other countries -were quoted recently by Sir Humphrey Rolleston, ’thd'famous physician. • • Healing with the rqport of the Director at the meeting of the Imperial Cancer .Research. Juiid, Sir Humphrey 'said that knowledge attained during the last 30 years was already Radicating the hroad lines along which prevention oi cancer must piocecd :/ Tho immediate problem of rational treatment remained. ,• ••• ; Only 25 per cent of male deaths in England and Wales were due to cancer of tlic stomach. In some other European countries the proportion was as high as 50 per cent., or more. In England and Wales cancer of tho stomach was more common in the lower social classes. -In Bavaria tho proportion of deaths from this cause among the working classes was 60 to 70 per cent. One. conclusion-; drawn - was that important factors in producing this result were external and bound up with the habits and social levels involved and avoidable. • Cancer of the tongue was nmo times more frequent Rn England than in Bavaria. t Knowledge : gained by 30 years of research, .the report stated, justified the - perhaps progress j fl A» tho -direction of-, an efficient, cancer prophylaxis (preventive treatment) was possible.