TREATMENT OF CANCER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19903, 24 September 1926, Page 12

TREATMENT OF CANCER

FREE CLINICS ADVOCATED. LESSONS FROM AMERICA. (Feom Odb Own Cobbespondents.) LONDON, July 30. Some interesting conclusions on the relative liability to cancer of people living in different towns and pursuing different ways of life were made in a paper which Ur John Brown, of Blackpool, submitted to the conference of the British Medical Association at Nottingham. lie said he had spent much time in going through cancer statistics in regard to the sites of cancer in the body, and in regard to occupation, ago, groups, and social classes. In 1918 he made special inquiry respecting cancer mortality in colliery centres. found that in those centres there was a low death rate from cancer among colliers and their wives, largely due to the active and strenuous life of their occupation, and thqir plain, efficient dietary. In such places, on the other hand, as Kensington, Hampstead, Blackpool, Southport. Bath. Hastings, Cambridge, and Oxford, the mortality from the disease was much higher. SUSPICIOUS GROWTHS. As to cancer in the breast, skin, and mouth. Dr Brown declared that it could bo easily discovered before cancer developed, and could be prevented. In the early stages of cancer many could be cured without operation. In this respect we had much to learn from America. We could and ought to adopt any and every successful method adopted in America. “I have studied,” ho proceeded, “what is done thoie and ought to be done in this country. There is no specific germ. There is no specific treatment. In the early states there is rarely need for operation. Nature is always on the side of the patient With the most careful study of each case, with dietary, a hopeful outlook, physical exercise, and healthy oxidations, many cases will get well. There should be free clinics for consultations at stated times for all persons not under medical treatment. The success that has attended the free clinics for tuberculosis and venereal disease is strong evidence that similar success will result respecting the greatest scourge of the whole race. The free clinics should be under the Ministry of Health, and the health authorities should make the arrangements. preferably cooperating with the hospitals and the university and colleges, so that free examination and advice will be open to all. All women over 30 and men over 35 who have suspicious growths or other symptoms indicative of cancer should certainly avail themselves of these free consultations. It has been urged that suspicious growths and cancers should be made notifiable, but the public is not ready for this.”