T.B. AND CANCER.

Grey River Argus, 13 February 1929, Page 5

T.B. AND CANCER.

CURE OF ONE. Causes Increase of Other. (Australian & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received February 12 at 8.35 p.m.) NEW YORK, February 12. Doctor Francis -Chrter Wood, Head of the Cancer Research Institute of Columbia University, commenting on a Melbourne despatch concerning tho research studies of Dr Cherry at Melbourne University, said that he was not at all surprised at the latter’s findings. “The general view among medical men,’/ he said, “is that there is a lower tubercular rate because more people have gone on to have cancer. The decline in the mortality from tuberculosis is generally accepted as the reason for the '(rise in the cases of cancer. Sinee cancer is a disease of old people, and' tuberculosis is one of youth, anything that prolongs the life of the individual in the community increases the liability to cancer. ’ ’

It is interesting to note that Dr Raymond Pearl, the Director of the Institute of Biological Research at the John Hopkins University, has just published a statistical study of 7,500 autopsies. He says: “In 886 persons who had a great deal of florid tuberculosis, there were but one point two per cent, with malignant tremours. On the other hand, in 886 persons with no record of lesions of tuberculosis at the autopsy, and having the same age, sex, and racial distribution, ease for case, as those very actively tubercular, there were nine point three per cent, with malignant tremours. ” As the result of these studies, the special treatment of selected cases of persons with malignant tremours with certain forms of tuberculin has been undertaken.