THE CANCER CAMPAIGN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 158, 5 June 1937, Page 8

THE CANCER CAMPAIGN.

The campaign against cancer is the most tormidaole in the realm of medicine. Throughout leading countries of the British Empire research is being l prosecuted to break doAvn the final barriers the disease has erected. It is a difficult task, but research workers have if not very considerable gains to their credit, then progress which is not without hope that finally the secrets of the disease will be yielded as the study and attack proceed. In his presidential address to the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society at Auckland, the president (Sir Janies Elliott) likened the investigation of cancer to the gradual completion of a huge and complicated jig-saw puzzle, of which little areas here and there have. been fitted together, but completion is still to be accomplished. When that goal is attained a dramatic victory will have been won in the cause of public health. Sir James Elliott’s review of the society’s work in the past eight years must be regarded as most encouraging. Over a period of seven years Jyu9 new cases have been Healed .at the cancer clinic with incieasing success. The public “have been roused to some extent to realise that each and all are, personally concerned in the cancer menace,” and a “large body of highly skilled and trained voluntary Avorkers has been raised.” Hospital boards hawe been “stimulated,” radium supplied, and touch maintained with all advances made elsewhere in the study of cancer. At the research laboratory in Dunedin much useful work has been done. A good deal of money has been subscribed for the AA r ork. The £15,000 Silver Jubilee gift from Ncav Zealand to the late. Ring George V was given by His Majesty to the society for its work here. The Travis bequest made possible the establishment of a radio-physics laboratory; but the Cause requires further financial help. Research work goes on noi alone in British countries, bill everywhere the problem is press ing. In NeAv Zealand in 1935 can cer took toll of 1056 lUes. But we are 13th among 29 cancer-record-ing countries, at the head of which are Great Britain and Switzerland, with a death rate of 15 per 10,000. It is a white man’s disease, though its constant presence tends to blind most people to its grave cost in valuable lives. ' But organisations like the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society are forging ahead towards the “clue which may at any time open the gates of hope.”