Second: Cancer

Cancer is now the second worst killer in the U.S. (worst: heart diseases), replacing pneumonia, which has held the position in recent years. In cities, at least one of every 250 persons has cancer.

These facts were reported by Harold F. Dorn of the U.S. Public Health Service last week after the widest cancer census yet made. The Health Service attributes cancer's rise to second place partly to the lessening of other diseases (tuberculosis and pneumonia), partly to the actual increase of cancer. Officials add that the prevalence of cancer is probably much worse than the canvass showed, because many people do not know they have cancer, or will not admit it.

The Health Service surveyed all cancer cases known to doctors and hospitals in ten representative U.S. cities. Findings:

P: About 430 of every 100,000 white city dwellers are or have been under treatment for cancer. Of these 380 are definitely known to have the disease.

P: Women with cancer outnumber men (about 25%).

P: Negroes seem to be much less susceptible than white people; the rate of prevalence among Negro men, for example, is only half as great as among white men. The Health Service thinks these figures are deceptive, merely mean that fewer Negroes get treatment.

The Public Health Service offered two faintly cheering facts: 1) "There is some indication that the rate of increase of the death rate [from cancer] is slowing down." 2) Many doctors suspect cancer where it does not exist. In Southern cities, for example, the Public Health Service found that, under microscopic examination, 50% of the illnesses diagnosed as cancer proved to be something else.

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