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From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 18, 3 May 1948, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Every three minutes someone in the United States dies of cancer. In the past 25 years, cancer has moved from the seventh to second cause of death in this country. Exceeded only by heart disease, cancer took over 175,000 American lives last year.
It is true that the increasing number of deaths from cancer is due to the increasing average age of the population. Still half of all cancer deaths occur below the age of 65. But cancer is curable in a large percentage of cases if it is diagnosed early and treated adequately. Physicians estimate that one-third to one-half of those who now die of cancer could be saved on the basis of present medical knowledge.
Cancer is not a disease caused by a germ or infection coming from outside the body. It is a disease, which, for some reason, as yet unknown, develops within the body as a result of uncontrolled cell growth. When a group of “outlaw” cells in the body begin to multiply abnormally, push aside neighboring tissues, rob them of their food and cause their death, the result is called cancer.
The present campaign of the American Cancer Society aims to acquaint people with cancer’s early danger signals. Any individual with one or more of the following symptoms is urged to see a doctor:
Discovered in time, cancer cells can be destroyed by the action of X-ray and radium or they can be removed surgically. If cancer appears in another part of the body after an operation or irradiation treatment, it means that the cancer cells had already begun to develop in that territory before the treatment.
New weapons against the deadly cancer are now being forged in the country’s; medical research laboratories. But the money allotted to cancer research is pitifully small. For every death from cancer last year, only three dollars was spent for research. What a contrast to the billions of dollars spent on Atom Bomb research!
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Last updated: 30 January 2022