FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1930, Page 11

FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

A SURGEON’S CONFIDENCE. VALUABLE DISCOVERY. If the Dominion aims at important results from cancer research, it should concentrate upon the problem from the •standpoint of bio-chemistry, said Dr. E. Munderson, in an interview at Wellington. Dr. Munderson, a graduate of Edinburgh and ■of the London ’College of Surgeons- (the Royal College) has done much research work In tho disease, attacking Ft from the dietetic standpoint. Convinced that the problem will ultimately be solved, hs believes that this solution wilb come from' the casual side. Modern'thought Is that cancer is curable'already if jt is manifested in certain forms, that is to say, we : have learned to discriminate between the malignant cancers and non-malignant cancers, and to know when and where a cancer cel Imay travel'in the human body. In this connection, the work of the microscope has been invaluable, for it has shown clearly just what is the difference between these forms of cancer.

Dr. Manderson is convinced that the accumulating body of information on cancer is more likely to show it to be an occupational or environmental disease than one due to food. He.considers that the most valuable discovery yet made, from the biological point of view, and one which may lead to great results, is the find that the cancer cell acts differently upon sughr in the course of the usual chemical processes of the body. The ordinary ceil may attack sugar in two ways —it may make a combination of it with oxygen, or it may split it up into a series of simple forms. The cancer cells break up far more sugar than they oxidise, and in this they differ from all other cells save those of extremely young embryos. They do this, even in the presence of much oxygen, which influences the other cells to act differently. In this new development of science —the study intensively of the chemical processes of the body, there is found the hope for t-lyi' fut-ny*j‘sajs'ipL Mundefseri. J '■ : , / ■’'> ''