Biological Society

An extremely intereating talk on Cancer was given to members of the Biological Society on Monday, July 15, by Dr. Mercer, Pathologist at Wellington Hospital. "It is a subject," he said, "on which it is easy to talk but hard to tell you anything about." However, he succeeded in being very informative about the disease.

Not one disease but many, cancer is as widely diversified as mumps and boils. Cancer cells are those which have lost their function and put all their energy into reproduction, which goes on at a greatly increased rate. They also take on a power of invasion and it is this which does all the damage. In time, the cells of the tumor invade the blood vessels, which carry them to all parts of the body, where they cause secondary metastatic growths. It is usually impossible to cure any person who has reached this stage. As the primary tumor is often easily cured if it is accessible, Dr. Mercer stressed the point that anyone suspecting that they might have cancer should not delay in having the trouble diagnosed. Unfortunately cancer often does not show any symptoms till at a very advanced stage, and for this reason regular thorough medical check-ups after middle-age would probably help considerably in combating the disease.

There are two main types of cancer the direct opposite of each other. Proliferating or fungoid cancer replaces the tissues with a large cancerous growth, and erodent cancer travels forward leaving nothing but a hole to mark its relentless passage.

As is to be expected, the causes are variable. Most important is the continued action of carsenogenic agents such as certain hydrocarbons, excess strong sunlight, cobalt and many others. These may have been applied many years before the disease develops, and research in this field becomes very difficult. Repeated blows in the same place may also cause cancer, but it is not thought that a single blow is a causal agent, although it may bring to the surface a developed cancer hitherto hidden beneath the surface. A common cause of death, one in five dies from it, and it is becoming more common due to the sole fact that more people reach the "cancer age" as life expectancy increases. X-ray and radium treatments are disappointing as little can be achieved that is not better done with the knife, and with less bad effects on the patient. It is thought that susceptibility to the disease may be an inherent factor.

Amply illustrated with slides and specimens, the talk was followed by a half hour of questions, all of which Dr. Mercer ably answered. A vote of thanks was carried and supper was served in the advanced laboratory.