A MODERN SCOURGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22603, 16 December 1936, Page 12

A MODERN SCOURGE

Returns of vital statistics in the United States reveal a disquietingly increasing death-rate from cancer, which is described as killing more Americans each succeeding year. Publication of this fact, together with the detail that cancer is, in the United States, second only to heart disease as a cause of death, is a reminder that in New Zealand also the positions of these two maladies are in that order. "Cancer," declares the latest issue of our national Year-Book, "is annually responsible for more deaths in New Zealand than can be assigned to any cause other than diseases of the heart." The situation is all the more disturbing here because some other frequent causes of death are yielding to remedial and precautionary measures. For instance, the deathrate from tuberculosis has been steadily decreasing over the period, from 1575, during which statistics have been carefully compiled, while that from cancer has been going up at as sharp a pace. This increase is markedly characteristic of civilised countries, and concern about it is virtually world-wide. Research, upon which any hopeful campaign against the menace must depend, has not yet succeeded in discovering more than a fragment of the truth about the cause or causes of the disease, and methods of cure have consequently proceeded only a little distance. Both the complaints having so baleful a distinction—heart disease and cancer —are doubtless attributable mainly to habits attendant on civilisation, although not necessarily the same habits, yet investigation of the precise origin has been baffled. Significant of this is the fact that the increase has proceeded to an alarming extent in countries where medical .research has been very painstakingly conducted. The outlook is not hopeless, but progress toward ultimate success is tantalisingly slow.