THE CANCER SCOURGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25800, 22 March 1945, Page 4

THE CANCER SCOURGE

A campaign which is being conducted this week by the Department of Health, with the object of directing public attention to the need of early treatment of cancer, is regrettably necessary. It is of the greatest importance that it should, be impressed on the, public mind that cancer, a terrible scourge though it is, is so far from being always fatal that it may certainly be arrested and cured if only the person who contracts it takes the precaution of seeking treatment while it is in an early stage of development. There are various danger-signals which a patient disregards at his peril. It is estimated that they are disregarded by 80 out of every hundred persons to whom they are exhibited. In some cases, no doubt, they are neglected because they are not recognised. In a great many instances the fear that medical advice may confirm a suspicion which the patient has entertained directly prolongs an illness until it is placed beyond the hope of recovery. The Department of Health has devised a plan that must be helpful to any person who wishes to assure himself against the possibility that he may have contracted cancer and who desires advice respecting what he should do if he has contracted it. Clinics have been established in the four main centres at which a panel of specialists and doctors attends weekly to examine patients and prescribe the form of treatment appropriate to their special circumstances. Recourse to the clinic affords the patient at least a chance of saving his life; it may be the means of a cure being effected, for experience has shown that early treatment of the disease does unquestionably reduce the death-rate. That is the important consideration. Cancer is in New Zealand second only to heart disease as a cause of death. It has been annually claiming an increased number of victims. In the period between 1932 and 1943 the deaths increased from 1472 to 2191, and the mortality rate increased from 10.13 to 14.24 per 10,000 of the population. These are figures of tremendous significance in a country in which the general death-rate is lower than could be regarded as possible in a population stable in respect of age constitution. There has been, it must be concluded, too little realisation, on the one hand, of the need for early treatment of the disease and, on the other hand, a too ready resignation to the disease when the occurrence of it has been suspected. A correction of both attitudes is plainly desirable.