CANCER RESEARCH WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 246, 16 September 1929, Page 3

CANCER RESEARCH WORK.

EFFORTS- IN NEW ZEALAND. LACK OP ADEQUATE FUNDS. The discussions regarding cancer arc considered to be by far the most important work of the Australian .Medical Congress held in Sydney. The congress was attended by a large delegation from New Zealand, and New Zealanders have not been slow to admit the limited nature of the work that is being done in the Dominion in regard to cancer research. They say that the work is hampered because the Government cannot spare adequate funds, and at the same time they pay a tribute to those who have contributed so generously to the cancer research funds that hive been inaugurated in different parts of the Dominion. N The dootors insist that they need much more money than that which is available to them. Sir Lewis Barnett said that cancer research efforts in New Zealand had been starved. He contended that much could be done without discovering the cause of the disease first. Pasteur had succeeded in discovering bow to combat hydrophobia without having determined the definite cause of the disease. So much importance was attached to the debate on cancer that all sections combined when the subject was taken. Professor F. P. Sandes, of Sydney, who oponed the discussion, spoke of the appalling destruction by the disease. Cancer was the great medical problem of the white race. Its inroads could only be viewed with the greatest alarm. It was an enemy remorseless, inscrutable, and ever advancing. Cancer research deserved the most serious .attention from medical men, and any scheme must provide for full and frequent consultation among the various workers, so that each might have a sympathetic understanding with the problems of the others. The cancer campaign \ could be likened to a war. Team spirit was essential to success. IMPORTANCE OF COORDINATION. The time had passed, Professor Sande.s said, when they expected that ono dav the newspapers would announce "that the great problem had been solved by an individual investigator. It needed well-thouglit-out plans and campaigning, an attack front many points at once, retreats front an untenable position, and revisions of the campaign in the light of knowledge acquired. It needed, too, generalship and staff work, and plenty of resources in men and monev. Tile money was comparatively easy to obtain, biit to secure research workers was more difficult. Many a brilliant student who had become a research worker had to face an ascetic life, deprived of many of the comforts enjoyed by an ordinary tradesman. Professor Sandes made a strong appeal for the better education of the people in health matters. It was recognised that publicity might produce a number of oinccrphobes, yet • the British Medical Association .should lend assistance to informing the public on the dangers of malignant diseases, and to combat the ignorance and carelessness of the people .about their own health. They had to be taught how to recognise the malignant diseases in their early stages. SURGERY AS THE SHEET-ANCHOR Literature informing the public bn such matters, the speaker said, did not need to be harrowing. It might be made as interesting as sport, politics, finance, or the private misfortune of our fellow men. ‘‘Surely, in the interests of suffering humanity,” lie said, “and the amelioration of suffering we ought to devise a system for the instruction of the people on this problem. Surgery must still be our sheet-anchor in this figlit. But malignant diseases occur in places that are not accessible to the scalpel. If chemical or physical means can be used to secure an improvement it is the duty of the medical profession to put them to tlie test. In spite of the lack of success in the treatment pf cancer with collodial lead research is still going on.” Various other speakers referred to the nature of the research work that was being carried out in the various States of tjje Commonwealth and New Zealand, and the following five points were set out as being vital: —(l) Coordination of the work in each State and country; (2) research in the causes contributirlg to the cause of cancer; (3) subsidised work in research; 14) strict attention to propaganda on the importance of early treatment; (5) extension of instruction of doctors in x-ray a-ud radium treatment of cancer. THE VALUE OF RADIUM. Dr Burrows detailed the efforts of the Federal Government to foster research in Australia by subsidising promising lines of work. A great need was an organisation that would follow up the cancer eases that were treated, so that the results of the treatment could be adequately checked. The purchase of radium by the Government was timely. It was certain that in some of the forms of the disease radium was the treatment of choice, though its position in cancer treatment was not well defined. ■ Good radium treatment could be given only by experts, said Dr Burrows, and so it was the aim of the Government to establish one well-equip-ped competent clinic in each State. The country was roused to the importance of prosecuting every promising line of research into the cause or treatment of cancer. _ Australia had a nation-wide organisation in that regard, but every effort must be made to keep Australia abreast or ahead of modern scientific development. It is particularly noticeable that none of the speakers announced any definite advance in the treatment of cancer. All that could be gleaned from the discussion was that research is continuing and developing.

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