The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1929 FIGHTING CANCER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1929, Page 8

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1929 FIGHTING CANCER.

Every country of the world hi a position to do so is assisting in research and experiment towards finding- a solution of the cancer problem. It is pleasing therefore to notice that the medical schools in New Zealand, as well as all the members of the medical profession, are also doing all in their power to assist in similar research work. Without in any way placing undue emphasis upon the ravages of this terrible disease, it is only right to state that deaths therefrom in the Dominion are only exceeded by those from organic disease of the heart. Its increasing prevalence is stressed by the Government Statistician in his last report, and the figures quoted by him are, of course, official, though it is claimed that such deaths in this country occur at an average later age than formerly. Whether that phase of the disease is due to the advance of science in the direction of alleviatives or not is Ji matter for conjecture. The main point is that the death rate increases, a fact which calls® for special efforts to combat the disease. Evidently this conclusion has influenced the New Zealand branch of the Empire Cancer Fund to appeal to the Otago University Council to undertake cancer research in university laboratories, and it is pleasing to know that the request has been granted, so that it may not be long before the necessary work is arranged for and put in hand. That work covers several avenues towards the goal. There is the task of gathering reliable statistics, which are bound to reveal much useful information, particularly as to the number of cases in which the disease attacks different parts of the human body, and recording the proportion of fatalities incident thereto. For instance, in New Zealand, it has been found that in the recorded cases there is a larger proportion of malignant cases of cancerous growths in the alimentary tract than obtains in most countries, so that there is ample room for rcresearch in that direction. Another line of investigation is the clinical, where much useful knowledge may be gained, especially in the application of remedial measures, hence the need for a special hospital devoted to the treatment of cancer cases, as well as for separate wards in the larger general hospitals. It is, however, to laboratory work that may be looked for important progress in obtaining the real cause of cancer and facilitate the discovery of a cure. It is in this department. of exploration that science and the most up-to-date equipment will play an important part in the campaign. We have only to take note of the splendid success which has already resulted from the special laboratories connected with the Middlesex Hospital in the Old Country in order to prove the supreme importance of these special laboratories. It is by co-operating in such work that the medical and research authorities of the Dominion may be able to contribute useful information which may materially assist in the worldwide attempt to solve the cause and treatment of the disease. As is well known to scientists, it is impossible to say from what branch of science valuable information may come from—the biologist, anatomist, physiologist, chemist, physicist,-or pathologist, or from, the practising physician, surgeon or radiologist, but the hope is the laboratory. New Zealand has given to the world one of the greatest scientist of the age in Sir Ernest Rutherford, especially in unravelling the marvellous properties of radium, which appears to be an element of very great significance in the treatment of cancer. It is, therefore, fitting that the Dominion should make a special effort to join with all overseas researchers and experimenters. Already the Government has subsidised Otago University with the object of financing an inquiry into the incidence of cancer. There is no reason why the hospitals and medical schools of this country should not make a special effort to obtain the necessary scientific equipment and raise adequate funds to help forward the investigation, and thus join in a worldwide endeavour to overcome one of the most fatal diseases to which humanity is a victim.