The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1928-02-09
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STATISTICS
Part1
BY DR.. ARTHUR L. FORSTER
copyright 1927. Bonnet Brown Corp.)

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Part |
1t is estimated that 10000 persons
In the United States die of cancer
each year. And since the average du-
ration of the disease is little over
two years approximately 100000 cases
of carcinoma are to be found at all
times.
Early Recognition the Only Hope
The majority of these people sus-
pect that there is something seriously
wrong with them, but they go on liv-
ing in fools paradise until they are
beyond the reach of medical aid, Or,
they fritter away valuable time with
this or that "cure' until it is too late
for surgical procedures to extirpate
the growth.
1t is easy to understand the psy-
chology back of most peoples atti-
tude to the subject. They prefer 60
ing on hoping that perhaps at" is
not cancer to having an examination
and finding out that ut" is cancer.
For which they can scarcely be blam-
ed. can think of any number of
things | would prefer being told to
receiving the information that l have
cancer.
How much more sensible, however,
to go to competent physician at the
first signal of trouble and have a
thorough examination. After all, the
chance is only one out of ten that it
is cancer. And where the disease is
diagnosed early the chance of Grad
icating it is far greater. Still more
sensible is it to have physical ex-
animation every three months. I am
convinced that if every woman past
the age of As would receive a pelvic
examination every three months cases
of cancer of the uterus could be cut
in half inside of three years, because
it would be found sufficiently early
to permit its successful eradication. As
it il, at the present time nine out of
ten cases are inoperable on first ex-
animation by a physician.
The Age Factor In Cancer
1t an automobile does not bounce
off a mans head or some other &C.
eldent or disease terminate his So
journ on this little ball before he is
flfty-five, he then faces one chance in
eight that he will develop cancer. At
that, his chances are better than a
woman gets, which is one out of five.
Here as in some other contingencies
women do not get as fair a break as
men. For example, three times as
many women die of cancer between
the ages of thirty-five and forty-five
while during the next decade, forty
five to fifty-five, twice as many wo-
men die of cancer.
Taking both sexes into account, one
out of every ten persons who live to
be forty is doomed to die of cancer.
If this disease could be wiped out en-
tlrely the average span of life would
be tremendously increased, as ninety
five per cent of all deaths from cancer
occur after the age Of thirty-five
years.
Our present average of life is 81
years, as compared with the average
of Is years in the day of King Tut,
80 during our Revolutionary War, and
As during our Civil War. In other
words it took the human race over
three thousand years to learn how to
increase its average of life expectancy
80 years. Inasmuch as nearly one-half
of this gain has been achieved during
the past century, we have little for
which to thank the previous odd thou
sands of years on this score.