CANCER RESEARCH PROGRESS

Patea Mail, Volume XLIX, 26 November 1928, Page 3

CANCER RESEARCH PROGRESS

EE VIEW OF CONFERENCE PAPERS VALUE OF RADIUM TREATMENT The Intemajtional conference for enncor research has just published a complete ■classified report of all the papers read at the recent congress. “The chief developments of knowledge,” says Professor Archibald Eeiteh. director of the research institute of the cancer hospital, London, “are contained in Professor James Ewing's paper, in which he insisted that cancer must be regarded as a group of diseases. ■ ‘ ‘ All the foremost authorities agree th%r cancers are not due to a single, casual agent,” Dr. Lcitch ‘(O&tinued in his summing up. “One paper iinally disposes of the prevalent idea that the Jewish race is loss prone to cancer than others. “Within a few years the perfection of radium technique has achieved such triumphs,” adds Dr. Lcitch, “that the development of this treatment is the cry of the day. Larger quantities of radium arc urgently needed. “Discussion has failed to reveal support for lead treatment. Blood tests are successful for diagnosing cancer only in 75 per cent, of cases. It is undeniable that there arc more obscure cases, but radiographic methods of detecting cancer in the stomach ar‘e most useful. “The tendency in the future,” Dr. Lcitch concludes, “will be to operate on stomach lesions before they develop into cancers.” In his paper Professor Ewing, who is a New York expert, said the theory of a universal cancer parasite stimulating the cell to incessant growth war, the most popular explanation of cancer, but it must now be ruled out on the ground that there was no evidence.