Clinton News-Record, 1979-03-29, Page 23•
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Research is costly, but it works
The investment made
in research by the
Canadian Cancer Society
is administered through
the National Cancer
Institute of Canada, an
organization which has
been in existence since
1947 and which is
recognized as one of the
major Canadian agencies
supporting biomedical
research programs.
The total research
budget of the Institute U
presently amounts to 'lc
more than eleven million =•
dollars a year and it'
continues to increase in,
step with the success of rd>y
the campaigns of the—
society.
Although the cancer
research community
already provides an
accounting for its ac-
tivities in many ways,
there is a continuing need
to respond to pertinent
questions and the
following represents an
attempt to answer some
of the most frequently
asked questions.
1. What has been
achieved by past
research?
There are many facets
of the cancer problem
which require in-
vestigation and these
include prevention,
diagnosis, detection,
treatment and
rehabilitation.
Since approximately
one out of every five
deaths in North America
is still due to cancer, it is
obvious that progress in
these areas of research
has been far more limited
than we would hope for.
As progress in medical
science continues, life
expectancy increases and
the total number of
deaths from cancer will
continue to increase
because cancer risk
increases markedly with
age.
But, if welook at the
survival rate for in-
dividual types of cancer
--wd find that, for some
sites, progress has been
negligibly small while for
others great strides
forward have been made.
For example, 25 years
ago most children with
acute lymphoblastic
leukemia would not be
expected to survive for as
long as six months after
the initial diagnosis was
made but today many
such children are long-
term survivors and there
are hopes for a normal
life expectancy.
Similarly, it is now
possible to justify ex-
pectations of long-term
survival for many
patients with Hodgkin's
disease and two of the
standard forms of
treatment of this disease
(radiation therapy with
up-to-date and more
sophisticated versions of
the Cobalt bomb, and
treatment by com-
binatigns of drugs which
inclue the vincad
alkaloids) are based on
discoveries and
developments made in
Canada.
The diversity of forms
that cancer may take
makes it unreasonable to
expect that progress will
be made either on a broad
1
1,
front or as an overnight
development. Rather do
we anticipate that in-
dividual types of cancer
will be seen to be more
and more responsive as
advances are made in
their treatment.
2. Is cancer increasing?
In 1932 the death rate
among Canadian men for
all forms of cancer was
174 per 100,000 of an age
adjusted population."
In 1975 the
corresponding rate was
227.4.
Yes, cancer is in-
creasing in Canadian
men..
In 1932 the death rate
from cancer among
Canadian women was
213.4 for an age adjusted
population while the
corresponding rate in
1975 was 165.3.
No, cancer is not in-
creasing among
Canadian women, and, in
fact, the death rate has
decreased significantly.
When we bear in mind
that the death rate from
lung cancer has in-
creased in Canadian men
from 4.6 per 100,000 to 76.4
per 100,000 in the same
period and the death rate
from lung cancer among
Canadian women has
increased from 2.5 to 16.6
per 100,000 it makes us
wonder what the death
rate from cancer would
be like if we excluded
lung cancer.
If we adjust the rates
referred to above, we find
that the death rate for
Canadian men for all
forms of cancer except
lung cancer has
decreased from 169.4 per
100,000 in 1932 to 151.0 in
1975, and for Canadian
women it has dropped
from 210.9 to 148.7 per
100,000 in the same
period.
The message is simple.
If it were not for lung
cancer we would be
winning the fight.
Even this is not enough
since a further break-
down of these figures
reveals that cancer of the
pancreas in men con-
tinues to increase at a
steady rate whilst death
from cancer of the
stomach has decreased
markedly.
Similar trends are
observed in the statistics
for cancer of the same
sites among women and
to, these must be added a
major decrease in t e
death rate from car-
cinoma of the cervix and
uterus which was 33.4 per
100,000 in 1932 and was 8.9
per 100,000 in 1975.
3. What are the com-
monest forms of cancer?
The commonest form of
cancer throughout the
world is probably skin
cancer but since so many
forms can be treated by
simple surgery and since
they are often not a major
threat to life, it is more
common to ask what are
the major causes of death
from cancer.
In North American
men, cancer of the lung is
responsible for more than
three times as many
deaths as cancer of any
other site and this ratio
continues to increase.
In women, the most
common cause of death
from cancer is breast
cancer and it is
responsible for more than
twice as many deaths as
cancer of any other site.
But this situation is
changing and, if present
trends continue, cancer
of the lung will also be the
major cause of death
from cancer in women by
the year 1984.
*
4. Who is likely to get
cancer?
For most forms of
cancer there is no simple
genetic relationship nor
can we easily identify
factors which greatly
modify our risk.
Obvious exceptions to
this general statement
are cigarette smokers
whose risk of developing
lung cancer increases in
direct proportion to the
number of cigarettes
smoked so that in-
dividuals addicted to
smoking two. packets of
cigarettes per day have
approximately 25 times
the normal risk.
Smaller but significant
risk factors have been
identified in the case of
breast cancer - the
woman who is Caucasian,
past the menopause, who
had no children before
the age of 35, who is
overweight and comes
from a family with a
history of breast cancer
is more likely to develop
this disease than her
sisters who meet none of
these specifications.
*
5. Is cancer caused by
viruses?
The answer to this
general question is 'yes',
but it is not easy to give
such a simple answer to
the specific question of
whether cancer in man
hag been shown to be
caused by viruses.
It is a fairly routine
matter to induce
leukemia in experimental
animals by injection of
viruses and it is also
possible to induce several
types of sarcoma and
lymphoma in these
animals.
Similarly, human cells
grown in tissue culture
may also be infected with
a virus and then the cells
can be shown to be
transformed to a type
that pathologists have
identified as being
characteristic of human
tumours.
In addition, it is
possible to isolate viruses
from cultures of human
tumour cells and show
that such viruses can
produce tumours when
injected into ex-
perimental animals.
However, in most cases
the final conclusive
evidence that any virus
can cause cancer in man
is still missing. There is
also a considerable body
of evidence to suggest
that all of us have the
potential to produce
tumour viruses by a
system which lies dor-
mant until activated by
some as yet unknown
outside mechanism.
6. Is cancer caused by the
environment?
Several outstanding
scientists have examined
statistics from all over
the world and come to the
conclusion that ap-
proximately 80 per "cent
of all cancer is preven-
table.
This has led other
scientists to suggest that
the 80 per cent of cancer
that is preventable is due
to factors contained in the
environment.
The search for such
evidence is carried out by
epidemiologists who use
statistics to study the
distribution of disease
and the reasons for that
distribution, and by
experimentalists who
study some of the many
compounds we encounter
in daily life and try to find
out if any of them will
give rise to cancer in
laboratory animals.
These tests take a long
time and are so expensive
to conduct . that every
evaluation might cost a
million dollars. Since
there are millions of
compounds, and mix-
tures of compounds, in
our environment it is not
possible to study more
than a few in detail.
The Health Protection
Branch of Health and
Welfare (Canada) per-
mits only a limited
number of chemicals to
be used in food be 'in
cosmetics and each of
these must be carefully
screened to verify that" in
standard laboratory tests
they do not give rise to
tumours in experimental
animals.
Although this provides
reassurance as far as the
quality of our food is
concerned, a lot of
research is being con-
ducted to devise simpler
and cheaper methods of
determining whether
contaminants of our
environment represent a
major carcinogenic
hazard.
7. Are new methods of
detection being
developed?
In a study carried out
at the University of
Alberta it was reported
that 86 per cent of all
cases of carcinoma of the
pancreas had progressed
to an advanced stage by
the time they were
detected.
Since the efficacy of
treatment is often
correlated with the
degree of advancement of
the disease it becomes
important to diagnose
cancer at the earliest
possible stage.
Same years ago a blood
test known as the CEA
test was devised in
Page 11
Montreal as a potential
means of early detection
of colo -rectal cancer.
Although the final
analysis of the results
indicated that the test
was not as specific as had
originally been hoped for,
the study markedly
stimulated the search for
methods of detecting
early, cancer by im-
munological reactions of
the blood.
Another example of
this type of study is the
work presently being
conducted at McMaster
University in which at-
tempts are being madeto
detect antibodies to a
virus in women with
carcinoma of the cervix,
the underlying assum-
ption being that this type
of cancer may be caused
by a Lvirus and that an-
tibodies to this virus are .
present in the blood of,.
such patients.
Send a mouse
to college. Find
out how today
How funds were
spent in 1978
(fiscal year ending September 30th, 197)
Income from all sources totalled $25,519,970 in
1978. A detailed accounting will be found in the
audited statement which is available upon
request to any Unit of the Society.
Expenditures totalled $22,795,396. These funds
were used as follows :
Research $12,928,936
Fellowships and professional
education 278,645
Provincial cancer foundations
and provincial programs 509,888
Education 3,774,121
Patient services 2,956,292
Cost of providing services 1,045,669
Cost of fund raising 1,301,845
$22,795,396
Resources at beginning
of year 9,474,385
Net increase in resources
for the year 2,724,574
Resources at end of year $12,198,959
Resources at end of year include $6,549,188
designated to meet specific commitments for
research, hostel facilities, and other special
projects and $34,235 for professional education.
The remaining resources of $5,615,536 will be
used to carry out the program of the Society in
the six months prior to the next campaign in
April.
HOW CANCER DOLLARS WILL BE SPENT
IN 1979
The Budget for 1979 .forecasts expenses of
$22,207,875 for the following:
Research $11,348,430
Research facilities and
capital projects 51,500
Provincial cancer foundations 497,000
Fellowships and professional
education 281,700
Education 4,202,006
Patient services 3,005,946
Cost of providing services 1,253,992
Cost of fund raising 1,567,301
Total budget $22,207,875
Less
Forecast income from
bequests and sundry 7,775,500
$14,432,375
Available for Expansion of
Research Program 2,067,625
Balance required from
campaign $16,500,000