Moscow

OVIET citizens have
every reason to be proud

of the achievements of their
public health service and,
medical science. Every ad-
vance of science adds that
much more power to the
doctors’ efforts to protect
human health, to preserve
and prolong the lives of
thousands of Soviet people.

To this gratifying task So-
viet oncology, the study of
malignant tumors, has made
a substantial contribution in
recent years. The subject is
one of general interest, and
so a short while ago a cor-
respondent of Literaturnaya
Gazeta interviewed Profes-
sor A. Savitsky, director of
the P. A. Herzen Institute of
Oncology, and asked him to
explain cancer and the fight
against it. This is what
Prof. Savitsky had to say:

THE term “cancer” comprises

several diseases of varying
character and intensity which are
to be observed in man in the
form of malignant tumors. Known
Since antiquity, the disease now
occurs in all parts of the world.

Not in all countries, however, is
the fight against it organized on
a sufficiently broad basis or giv-
em Sovernment support. The So-
viet government was the first in
the world to take upon itself the
care and expense of curing and
preventing cancer.

The prophylactic trend of the
Soviet public health service is a
highly important factor in the
war against cancer. A network
of oncological institutions, de-
Stroyed during the war, has since
been restored and a commission
of distinguished scientists, ap-
pointed in 1944, has mapped out
a comprehensive plan of attack
upon the disease.

Specialized: cancer institutions
have been established all over
the country. At present there is
an oncological clinic in every ter-
ritoral and regional centre and
in many of the district centres of
the USSR to provide cancer treat-
ment and—an extremely import-
ant point—to ensure early diag-
nosis through mass health exam-
inations. Moreover, each onco-
logical clinic has set up a number
of local branches.

Some idea of the rate at which
this network has grown is to be
gained from the fact that in 1946
there were registration services

A SOUTH African scientist has,

uncovered evidence to support
a theory that Africans (Negroes
or Arabs) established contact with
the Americans around 900 A.D.,
more than 500 years before Col-

[NEW PRICES SHOES

“Pl be back next week: with
: the money for the other one!”

in 110 towns, three years later in

487, and two years later still, in.

1025 towns. This year the Soviet
government has begun establish-
ing oncological centres in rural
areas as well. A far cry from
conditions in pre - revolutionary
Russia, where millions of people
used to die “for reasons un-
known.” -

*

“The purpose of this extensive
network,” said Prof. Savitsky, “is
to provide prompt medical aid
for the cancer patient wherever
he may live; cancer is much more
easily cured when detected in the
first few weeks'or months. Suc-
cessful treatment is therefore di-
rectly dependent upon the suc-
cessful operation of the prophy-
lactic network.

To detect cancer promptly
means to double or treble the
Patient’s ,chances of cure. -No
wonder, then, that we oncologists

\

"attach so much importance to

Did Africans vo

umbus made his celebrated voy-
age.

The British science journal,
Nature, has published the findings
of Dr. M. W. D. Jeffreys of the
University of Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr. Jeffreys said that 10th
Century pottery of a West African
tribe named the Yoruba was dec-
orated by rolling an Indian corn
cob over the wet clay.

All varieties of Indian corn are
believed to have been derived
from an indigenous Mexican or
Peruvian grass (Euchlaena). Dr.
Jeffreys had been trying to deter-
mine just how this easily identifi-
able grain reached the West Afri-
can tribe long before Columbus
was born.

His quest led him northeast

This $76,000 cobalt bomb unit was desi

, Most modern weapons in mankind’s armory ajainst cancer,

in the two-ton head (upper right) is more powerful than eithe
intended for use in large clinics.

Cancer treatment

in the USSR

mass medical examinations. In
the past three or four years doc-
tors have examined millions of
men and women for cancer right
at the factories and offices.

“It is sometimes thought that
prophylactic measures are futile
when science does not know the
causes of the disease in question,
but observations of the develop-
ment of malignant tumors and
experiments on animals prove
otherwise.

The fact is that as a.rule malig-
nant tumors grow not on healthy
tissue but on tissue which has
been affected for some time by
some other, non-cancerous dis-
ease. To detect and cure these
pre-cancerous conditions (and that
is the purpose of prophylaxis) is
both possible and necessary.

Our experience over a period of
many years confirms this.  Al-
though we do not yet know all
the causes of cancer, modern sci-
ence is already combatting it suc-
cessfully. Prophylactics has sav-

from the locale of the Yoruba
tribe. He traced the grain
through successive regions right
up to the North coast of Africa.

“My researches over the past
seven years have now accumulat-
ed sufficient data to establish
Arab-Negro contacts with the Am-
ericans beginning about 900 ALD.,”

,he wrote.

Di. Jeffreys also asserted that
ancient Arab or Negro skeletons
have been found in the Pecos val-
ley of Mexico and that Columbus
was aware of strange “foreign
grains” in West Africa before he
sailed West on his first voyage.

The New York Times, which
carried a story on Dr. Jeffreys’
theory, said that “leading botan-
ists here (in Britain) say they
prefer to suspend judgment on
the theory.”

gned in Canada as a gift to Britain. One of the
the radioactive cobalt contained
r X-rays or radium. The unit is

ed many lives and will yet save
many more.

“The data I have at my disposal
brings me to the firm conclusion
(a conclusion which many sci-
entists in other countries are
gradually coming to share) that
the incidence of cancer is not in-
creasing,

“We can state just as confident-
ly that it is not an infectious dis-
ease. For years we have not had
a Single case of canser among our
doctors, nurses or other attend-
ants, despite their close contact
with patients.”

*

Is cancer curable? Prof. Savit-
sky answered this question in the
affirmative.

“On the basis of our extensive
experience,” he declared, “my
colleagues and [I maintain that
cancer is curable.

B might cite many instances of
patients being cured and restored
to active life, with no signs of any

yage to America?

Prof. Cyril Dp, Darlington of
Oxford was quoted as saying he
had no doubt that Indian corn
was a Mexican or Peruvian origin,
but he believed it travelled east
“in Post-Columbian time.”

“Ethnologists are less skepti-
cal,” the paper reported.

“They say ‘it is possible that
very occasional voyages were
made across the Atlantic before
1492.”

An un-named Cambridge geo-

Srapher suggested another pos-

sibility. He said that there was
readily discernible Chinese influ-
ence among South Afriean tribes,
dating back to the 6th and 7th
centuries B.C.

“It may be that the Indian corn
first reached Africa via the Pacific
and China,” he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 4, 1953 —

recurrence of the diseas
many years. I myself 0"
dreds of people who
health today, five, ten bei
years after operation am
ment. ; ;

{real
ee ala 7
“There is a great deehet i ;
to show that the most ee af te
forms of cancer — cane an |
stomach, womb, hres are |
gue, rectum — are cur ae
more often than is ©
supposed. :
vidual

“Naturally, in each indi od
case the issue is deter!
many different factors.
of the patient, the orgal :
the growth is localized,
of the growth, all play 4 P

e

“The doctor has 0 Me in
these and many other a bh
consideration before he and Be

lish a correct diagnosis al couse |
scribe the proper, Talons does

of treatment. But the ns lode

not rest with the doctor : 3

has beet

“Time and again it Keel
observed that patients ue ro
up their spirits an red mu
faith in recovery are cu pire
more successfully. Th for i
valid scientific grounds | yj
in Academician Pavlovs » of ti
about the active inf e the
central nervous Bde b. vet |

“More faith in thelr icine
ers and the powers 0 wi
that is what I aan
patients, for in that on :
of the guarantees 0 a

ery.”’
*

ws
Modern oncology kn? surge

methods of treatment: radi’

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two. The efficacy of ereasill
apy is also gradually } er teal

These methods e of
ment ensure a hig
cures.

tm
As methods of pad f

improved, the numbe
able issues grows. é fui ‘|
Data of the P. A. Hee treat |
tute of Oncology show kin, fol: @
ment of cancer 0
instance, in its early fas many
sults in radical cure bat
as 95 percent of the ea h ;
treatment of cancer re yields
tongue and breast 4 oe is
high percentage of pie stom
in cases of cancer 0 ae 0
—the most frequet that 7
malignant tumor—" , e
percent are comp operation
when there is timely i @
It stands to reason a he
ing success in this
expected.

t a?
; “rt

ercentage of f

eg claims, C4? moe 4
ed still higher by spr ; Ne
medical informatio”. ng fu #
population and AE h
oncological training fe and
of thousands of surge
specialist physicians: ae at

It is a point worth ai nu
in the Soviet Union | gical
of patients who see ene of ;
vice with neglected vest Ast
cer is declining every mure an i
this is making radic@ result
creasingly common
medical care. |, wi

“Cancer research ae n
two lines in the "4
Prof. Savitsky state e
one hand there aoe
work out methods FreatMel ig
nosis and effective i
the other cath

uses of the
mr valuable th
practical results :
tained. onto

f
A nts 0
“The achievem® those

i earch, a8 "| ogorts
Dhylactie and medica ge to
spire hope that . by ao
will be conquer

medicine.”

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