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,
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