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15
Cancer
I reported last year (p22) on the ratio between lung cancer in males
and in females on the one hand and its relationship to the amount of
cigarette-tobacco they smoke. I have stated for some years now that the
evidence of the close association between lung cancer and cigarettetobacco
is overwhelming, but in spite of propaganda both locally and on
a national scale there is no indication that the consumption of cigarettetobacco
in the country is diminishing. This cigarette habit is a
particularly unfortunate one when it starts in young adolescents because
they cannot appreciate the realities of lung cancer at some vague date,
possibly twenty or thirty years, in the future, and therefore it is
essential that everything possible should be done by those who can guide
them to prevent their starting the cigarette habit, or if this is impossible,
to ensure that the number of cigarettes smoked is as low as possible.
Meanwhile I have to report a further increase in lung cancer deaths
during 1958. The male deaths increased from 101 to 114 and the female
deaths remained at 21, giving a total of 135 cases as against 122 in the
previous year. At the same time the total deaths from all forms of
cancer underwent a slight decrease— from 492 to 472, and this puts
up the proportion of cancer deaths due to lung cancer from 25 to 29
percent, as is shown in the following table which gives similar figures
for the past eight years.