FIGHTING CANCER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 28 June 1926, Page 8

FIGHTING CANCER

DR MAYO'S HOPEFULNESS

CHICAGO, .nine 14

“We are definitely on the road to the mastery of cancer,” said Dr. Charles Maya, the well-known surgeon, in an interview'. He added: “We are still unable to say, however, that our discoveries have worked out to a settled conclusion.

“When yc|u consider that of the ninety-two .elements that malm up the known.world, only tw r o, numbers eightylive and eight-seven, arc still unrecog•nised, one must entertain the highest hopes that wc shall know all about cancer in a few years. , “Deaths from cancer in America total 100,000 annually.. Dr. John Bloodgood, of. the Johns. Hopkins Hospital, has'reduced the death rate from cancer to the muu:li by 50 per cent. “Wo are discovering cancerous growth in time and succeeding in eliminating it. What- bothers us most is that many of tiie malignancies are internal. Onethird of all cancers are in the stomach, .and for a long period we cannot recognise them.

“Ultimately, we hope to obtain a. diagnosis method, comparable with the AVassermau blood test, to enable the cer. tain detection of stomach cancers at their inception. But what cancer is, -what nourishes it, what this-particular bacteria or germ is, the medical profession is still’unable to sav.”