CANCER CAMPAIGN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6568, 20 September 1948, Page 4

CANCER CAMPAIGN

WORK OF BRITISH EMPIRE CANCER COUNCIL ADDRESS BY CONSULTING SURGEON The following is a report of the address that Mr Edward Gifford, M. 8., Ch.B., F.R.C.S., (Eng.), Consulting Surgeon to the Cancer Clinic at the Auckland Hospital, intended to give to a public meeting in Te Awamutu on Thursday night, but which had to be abandoned because of the fact that only two citizens were present:—

“I will first say something about the 8.E.C.C., and what its objects are. The New Zealand branch of the society was established in 1930 and it decided to concentrate its activities in two directions. Firstly, it decided to provide consultation clinics throughout the country for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. This was done, and at these clinics a group of specialists in the various fields of cancer treatment meet to consider each case and to decide the diagnosis first, and then what line or lines of' treatment should be followed. This work is done quite voluntarily by the specialists concerned, and the service is completely free to the patients. Any patient referred to the clinic is seen as often as is necessary without any charge being made. In Auckland there is a large clinic to which cases are sent from all parts of the upper half of the North Island. It meets once each week, and about 30 to 50 patients are seen throughout the morning. There are on the records at present nearly 8000 patients and new patients are reporting, to the number of just under 1000 each year. The statistical analysis of all these cases (and others ' from . the other clinics further south) is of tremendous importance, and a great deal of information is being tabulated and studied. The results of different forms of treatment are compared, and then the best is chosen. The relative importance of different symptoms is noted and the information so received is used to teach students and the younger practitioners. These are just examples of dozens of important conclusions which are being reached as a result of the very careful recording and following up of these cases. The second main object of the B.E.C.C. is to maintain cancer research. This has been going on for some time in laboratories in Dunedin and Christchurch. Dunedin concentrates on biological research, and there have been important developments. The recent appointment of Professor Bielsborski, a cancer research worker of international standing, to the Dunedin laboratory, has been a big advance and should produce most useful results.

In Christchurch is the radio physics laboratory. This is also doing very good work, and amongst its varied functions it conducts rerays; it makes and supplies a gas radon which is used by medical men in the actual treatment of cancer cases; it conducts calibration tests on all x-ray therapy equipment in the Donynion and maintains its reliability. Shortly it is hoped to add research with the radio active isotopes, the products of the atomic pile. Now all this work requires a continuous flow of funds, and it is to point out to you the necessity for the work being continued, and hence the necessity for funds, that we have come down to-night. All this is being done to reduce the number of people suffering from, and dying from, cancer, and the study of records shows that in the present state of our knowledge, the thing which is going to produce the greatest improvement is early diagnosis. Now early diagnosis depends mainly on early consultation of their doctors by patients who notice anything suspicious in their health. This requires education of the people generally, so that they know when to ask for their doctor’s advice. Hence the present slogan—Fight Cancer with Knowledge. That this will improve results has been proved decisively in the United States, where as a result of such a programme one State has raised the rate of cure two to three times.

May I put it to you a different way again? At present we find that with modern treatment % of cancer patients are completely cured; i could have been cured if they had come for treatment a bit earlier; and 3 are not curable in the present state of our knowledge. With regard to this last we hope that research will sooner or later solve this problem, but with regard to the middle 3 who could have been cured if they had presented themselves earlier, then education of the public is our main hope. This is not a suitable time to list all the symptoms which you should regard as suspicious, but I might say that one of the most important is bleeding, and any bleeding not Readily explained by natural causes, such as injury, should be investigated. For all this the B.E.C.C. requiresfunds, and we ask you to assist as much as you can.