London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Harrow 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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of progress even of the same type of cancerous growth, one growing in
the breast of a young woman being more rapidly growing than the same
type growing in the elderly. This means that although diagnosed in the
early stages, there is no assurance that a growth is removable or the patient
curable. On the other hand, slowly developing, almost non-malignant
growths, can be excised years after their origin. Nevertheless, it can be
accepted that the chances of eradicating a particular growth are that much
greater the earlier the treatment is started. Unfortunately, in so many
people, the growth has reached such a stage by the time treatment is first
started that cure cannot be achieved. In so very many instances the patient
had known of the existence of the growth for some time before having it
seen to, and in many of these cases it seems that the delay in seeking
treatment was the very fear of the sufferer of being told that the growth
was in fact cancer; this is largely because to so many cancer is a complaint
which is incurable and which inevitably continues its course. That once
was the position, but is not so today. That this is so should be more
generally made known because the removal of the fear of the inevitable
progress will result in sufferers going for treatment at an earlier stage in
what in many cases might be in a recoverable stage. The following table
is part of one which appeared in the Annual Report of the Chief Medical
Officer of the Ministry of Health for 1957 and refers to the commoner cancers.
The table is of the percentage of cases of cancer (age corrected) surviving to five years after diagnosis by stage of disease and kind of treatment given, with the proportion of localised and radically treated cases:—
| Site | Radically treated cases | All cases treated or not | Percentage of localised and radically treated cases | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Localised | Regional spread | |||
| Stomach | 30 | 16 | 5 | 8 |
| Intestine (except rectum). | 44 | 29 | 15 | 21 |
| Rectum | 50 | 29 | 16 | 22 |
| Lung | 11 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Breast (female) | 66 | 34 | 35 | 25 |
| Cervix uteri | 51 | 30 | 35 | 44 |
| Bladder | 47 | 27 | 21 | 29 |
| Skin | 87 | 55 | 75 | 73 |
In all cases there is a marked difference between the percentage of
survivors for five years in those in whom the disease was localised at the
time of treatment and those where there was regional spread. The figures
show that whereas in cancers of some sites there is a good chance of
survival for five years, there is little enough in the case of cancer of the
lung. This only emphasises the need that what might be done should be
to arrest the steady annual increase of these cases.
Cancer of the Lung. The increase in cancer of the lung amongst
males is one of the most disturbing phenomena in the public health field in
recent years and this for two reasons. The first is that the numbers are
already very high. 19,000 men in this country died in 1957 from cancer of
the lung. This means that in this country one person is dying from cancer