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110
Comments on Foregoing Tables.
(1) Deaths from Cancer increase as age advances; this is in
accordance with established facts.
(2) Mortality is about evenly distributed between the two
sexes at all ages, making allowance for the preponderance of females
in the general population.
(3) The two main groups of organs attacked in both sexes
are the alimentary system and the reproductive system. In males
72.1% of the total deaths fall within these groups and in females
83.2%. In males Cancer of the digestive system is the commones
situation, amounting to 60.9%. In females it was 40.1%. Cancer
of the reproductive system caused 43.1% of the total deaths in
females and was the most prevalent type. Cancer of the laryns.
tongue and mouth is commoner in males than females, 20 deaths
occurring in males as compared with 4 in females. The organs
most often attacked in descending order of incidence are, in males
the Rectum and Bowels (22.4%); the Stomach (20.7%); the
Lrangs (8.9%); the Prostate (7.1%); in females, the Breast
(22.7%); the Bowels and Rectum (20.3%); Stomach (15.3%)
and the Uterus (13.3%). This is slightly different from the incidence
in 1933.
The main incidence of Cancer is, in both sexes, on two group
of organs, both having a common characteristic, namely, periods of
active cell degeneration and regeneration.
Although much research has been made and is continuing into
the causation of Cancer, the reason why certain cells suddenly
become abnormally active and reproduce themselves excessively
with resultant invasion of surrounding tissues, has not yet beeelucidated.
The Cancer cell is an ordinary tissue cell which
become invested with abnormal properties. Why this sho»l
happen is not yet understood.