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45.
The large majority of the cases in this outbreak
were of a comparatively mild type as is usually experienced
in outbreaks of this disease and fortunately all
the Fulham patients made good recoveries.
Cancer.
The deaths from cancer in England and Wales in
1927 were 54,078 in number, 25,048 of males and 29,030
of females. Cancer caused more deaths in both sexes in
England and Wales than any other group of diseases
except diseases of the heart.
Although the actual number of deaths and the crude
cancer death-rate were greater in females the standardised
death-rate, which takes into consideration the sex
and age constitution of the population, was slightly greater
(3 per cent.) for males. This was due to the larger
number of females in the general population. The
difference in the standardised death-rate in the two sexes
is so slight that males and females may be considered to
be equally liable to cancer at the present day.
The authoritative and interesting report of the
Imperial Cancer Research Fund discusses a number of
general features of the cancer problem in the report for
1927-28. It emphasises the fact that cancer is a local
disease and the possibility of cure, provided the disease is
diagnosed and treated in its earliest stages. This view
was only established through the experimental investigation
of cancer in animals.
Malignant disease of the breast and uterus account
for more deaths than cancer of any other organ whereas
in men cancer of the generative organs is comparatively
rare. In males, however, cancer of the internal organs,
for example the stomach, is commoner than in females.
It is stated that cancer of the breast is frequent in
English women, rare in Japanese women, while in Dutch
women its incidence is only half that in English women;
nevertheless the total cancer mortality in women in these
countries is approximately the same.