CANCER TREATMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 67, 16 February 1939, Page 8

CANCER TREATMENT.

EARLY ACTION NECESSARY. DR MAGUIRE’S ANALYSIS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Feb. 15. The necessity for continuous research in the hope of finding the cause of cancer and thus obtaining a euro, the importance of early diagnosis, and the need for skilled treatment of the disease were the outstanding requirements to combat the cancer scourge, said Dr F. A. Maguire, the well-known Sydney surgeon, in an address tonight. The chairman, Sir James Elliott, in welcoming the Minister of Health (Hon. P. Fraser), the Director-Gen-eral of Health in Australia (Dr J. H. L. Cumpston) and Dr Maguire, said that the address was something of an experiment. The medical profession had been accused of not taking the public into their confidence, but sometimes the public were reluctant to come forward to learn. Another fear was that they might produce a cancer phobia. After describing the different tyj>es of cancer and its incidence, Dr Maguire said that, according to general statistics, cancer came third in the general causes of death, being next after heart disease and pneumonia. It was estimated that one in every eight of the adult population would die of cancer under present conditions of knowledge and treatment; Unfortunately for the human race, the true cause of cancer was unknown at the present time, but there were. certain factors which were known to have an influence in causing cancer. The question of heredity was widely debated, and there were also the influences of age and irritation (mechanical, chemical and thermal). An increasing body of scientific workers believed, also, that viruses—probably of the nature of ultra-microscopic living organisms—played an important part in the causation of cancer. As well as very early cases, many cases of fairly advanced cancer could be cured by modern methods of treatment and even in very advanced cases there were sometimes almost miraculous recoveries, said Dr Maguire, who stressed the necessity for early diagnosis and the establishment of cen-trally-situated diagnostic centres where the services of specially-qualified medical men should be made available free to all poor and indigent persons, payment being made by those who could afford it. Everyone should know the following primary anu essential facts about cancer : It attacked both young and old; was painless in its early stages; grew comparatively slowly; unless it was checked or cured by efficient treatment, cancer killed; cancer could bo cured if detected early enough. Any lump in any part of the body which appeared painlessly or which . grew steadily, any sore or ulcer which did not clean up rapidly with treatment, any unnatural discharge of blood or matter from the bowei or other cavities of the body, any . “indigestion” which did not yield quickly to simple remedies, might be the beginnings of a cancer. All persons who found that they had any one of those conditions should report to their family doctor or to a diagnostic centre. Dr Maguire, in conclusion, dealt with the treatment of cancer by suigerv, deep X-ray, radium and radium emanations (radon). Intensive research, early diagnosis and skilled treatment were the three outstanding requirements if the community wished to hold and check the cancer scourge.