CANCER RESEARCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21998, 6 July 1933, Page 6

CANCER RESEARCH

The fact that the annual meeting of the Otago and Southland Division of the Cancer Campaign Society will be held this afternoon will serve to remind the community that the war upon the greatest scourge that is known to mankind is being ceaselessly waged. Right throughout the Empire, and in several foreign countries as well, research is being conducted with a view to the discovery of the cause of cancer. The results of this research may not have been spectacular, and it is nowhere pretended that they have been. The cause of the disease has, in fact, so far eluded detection. Promising lines of investigation are, however, being persistently pursued. As the research workers throughout the world are in regular communication with each other, there is no wasted effort on their part. The processes upon which they are engaged are yielding important results in the respect that they admit of the gradual elimination of supposed causes of the disease as factors that must be taken into account. As a consequence, the scope of their investigations is steadily being narrowed down within limits upon which a concentration of energy is becoming more and more practicable. And thus it may be confidently clajmcd that step by step the research worker is surely approaching his goal. In the meantime, the treatment of cancer is fortunately being attended with an increasing degree of success. The value of the cancer clinics that are maintained at the principal hospitals in the Dominion and of the investigations conducted by the committees of professional consultants in each centre has been conclusively proved. As in the case of the research workers, so also in the case of the clinic committees, there is a constant interchange of data, with the effect that the adoption of a uniform plan of exploration is facilitated. It has become a commonplace in the literature on the subject that the disease is one that responds favourably to early treatment, whether it be surgical or radiological or involving a combination of surgery and radiology, and the existence of the clinics provides a means whereby early diagnosis may be obtained. That the mortality rate for cancer remains seriously high is not to be denied. On the other hand, it is equally undeniable that far more cures are being effected than was formerly the case. It has been said on reliable authority that three out of every four patients who submit to early treatment are now cured. That is a remarkable and most encouraging statement. It is one that should fill with fresh hope the minds of all who have been exercised by the terrible levy which cancer has made upon human life. It should also serve as a great incentive to renewed endeavour on the part of those who are patiently and pcrseveringly devoting their time and skill to the task of tracking down the agent that is responsible for the occurrence of this insidious and dreaded disease.