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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-03-30, Page 46pito* lit Executive members of the Clinton Branch of the Canadian Cancer Society are, left to right, Marion Peck, secretary; Freda Slade, second vice-president; Rita Flynn, transports ion chairman; and Steve Brown, campaign vice-chairman. Absent for photo were He en Davies, president, Colleen Philips, treasurer, Gerry Holmes, campaign chairman, M ry Murphy, commemoration, Carol Bowker, education, and Donna Holmes, publicity. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) Wording makes difference How a non-smoking sign is worded has an effect on the likelihood of compliance, in- dicates a study which describes the effects of no non-smoking signs, vs sharp- ly worded injunctions against smoking, vs more pleasantly -worded signs. The scene of the study was the lobby of a United States Veterans Administration Medical Center. The "negative" signs said: "No smoking - offenders subject to fine" and "Hospital smok- ing policy strictly enforced." The "positive" signs said either "Please do not smoke" or "Consider others' health, do not smoke." Observations of the pro- portions of pe le smoking in the lobby under the three different sign conditions showed that while 29 percent of those using the lobby smoked when there were no signs, this dropped to 11 per- cent with negative signs and to five percent with positive signs. Women seemed to be particularly affected by the more courteously -worded signs. The proportion of men smoking when faced with the different signs dropped from 37 percent to 15 percent to seven percent. At the same time, the proportion 'of smok- ing women dropped from eight percent to three per- cent to zero percent. What's happening in Canada? Yearly deaths from lung cancer per 100.000 people 1940 1950 1960 1970 Yearly consumption of cigarettes per person over 15 years 1940 1950 1960 1970 WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY? uestions and answers about cancer research The investment made m research by the Canadian Cancer Society is ad- ministered through the Na- tional Cancer Institute of Canada, an organization which has been in existence since 1947 and which is recognized as one of the ma- jor Canadian agencies sup- porting biomedical research programs. The total research budget of the In- stitute presently amounts to more than twenty million dollars a year and it con- tinues to increase in step with the success of the cam- paigns of the Society. Although the cancer research community already provides an accoun- ting for its activities 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 fre- quently asked questions. 1. What has been achieved by past research? There are many facets of the cancer problem which require investigation and these include prevention, diagnosis, detection, treat- ment and rehabilitation. Since approximately one out of every five deaths in North America is still due to cancer, it is obvious that pro- gress in these areas of research has been far more limited than we would hope for. As progress in medical science continues, life expec- tancy increases and the total number of deaths from cancer will continue to in- crease because cancer risk increases markedly with age. But, if we look at the survival rate for individual types of cancer we find that, for some sites, progress has_ been negligibly small while for others great strides for- ward have been made. For example, 25 years ago most children with acute lym- phoblastic 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 ex- pectancy. Similarly, it is now possible to justify ex- pectations of long-term sur- vival for many patients with Hodgkin's disease and two of the standard forms of treat- ment of this disease (radia- tion therapy with up-to-date and more sophisticated ver- sions of the Cobalt bomb, and treatment by combina- tions of drugs which include the vinca alkaloids) are bas- ed on discoveries and development made in Canada. The diversity of forms that cancer may take makes it unreasonable to ex- pect that progres will be made either on a broad front or as an overnight develop- ment. Rather do we an- ticipate that individual types of cancer will be seen to be more and more responsive as advances aremade 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 cor- responding rate was 227.4. Yes, cancer is increasing in Canadian men. In 1932 the death rate from cancer among Canadian women was 213.4 for an age adjusted population while the cor- responding 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 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 15],11/_in19.75,._and-fnr.-Cana-- dian 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 fur- ther breakdown 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 the 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 commonest 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 timet 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 con- tinue, 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 easi- ly identify factors which greatly modify our risk. Ob- vious exceptions to this general statement are cigarette smokers whose risk of developing lung cancer increases in direct prloportion to the number of cigarettes smoked so that in- dividuals addicted to smok- ing 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 Cauca- sian, past the menopause, who had no children before the age of 35, who is - overweight' and -wines 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 ques- tion of whether cancer in man has been shown to be caused by viruses. It is a fairly routine matter to in- duce leukemia in experimen- tal animals by injection of viruses and it is also possible to induce several types .of sarcoma andlymphoma in these animals. Similarly, Turn to page 15 This information is brought to you with the kind co-operation of the following: Bonnie's Amusement Center OPEN Mon to Thurs 11 - 10 Fri 8 Sat 11 • 11 Sun 1.9 Main SI . Seaforth SEAFORTH CREAMERY . (1981) INC. P O Box 277 Seatorth. Ont NOK 1W0 ELM GROVE DAIRY SPREAD BUTTER & MARGARINE Telex 069-55128 Tel 527.0(x10 Luke's Machine Shop 40 Birch SI Seaforth. Ont Bus 519-527-1080 Phones Res 519-527-0134 Repairs & Fabrications Stonetorks — Sean Pullers — Grain Buggies — Large Capacity Material Buckets Exclusive 'Fabric:, W.1Furniturt'•Art tie Accents SkIOWROOM t•LM Albert Street. Clinton 482 3871 NO AUTO WRECKERS CLERE-VU 482.3211 HIGHWAY 8 3 MI. WEST OF CLINTON FLEMING FEED MILL LTD. 60 IRWIN ST. CLINTON 482-3438