Tobacco Documents Online

-"'A nationally recognized sur- geon who smoked-three to four packages of cigarettes a day for nearly 40 years set aside % this habit four months ago and :4n Portland T h u r s d a y ex- , pres:ed some definite opinions about ci3arettes and cancer. He is Dr. Isador Ravdin, pro- ;ofessor of surgery at the Uni .:Versity of Pennsylvania Medi- . cal School, and a member of the surgical team which oper- ated on President Eisenhower' when he was stricken• with+on the symptoms c:' cancer, ileitis in 1956. but has caused' physicians to ke more thorough checkss - Dr. Ravdin was one of the • mathe disease in general ex- guest lecturers Thursday at for..ttte 2nd annual Oregon Cancer Iainmations of patients. Conference at the Portland- Sheraton Hotel. "Tobacco is an important' '.` cause of lung cancer," the vis- ; itor said in an interview. °". "The more that I have stud- ied it, the more I am con- vinced that heavy smoking ; causes not only lung cancer but a numb2r of other disor- ders in peonle." he explained. Smokers Take Risk "Regardless of what is said." he continued4 "the individual ' wcho: smokes heavily exposes - ' himself to the risk of cancer `! of the Iting." ' stages. % Anyone who does smoke Better pre-operative and' I heavily should fully under- -t_operative care of cancer stand the risk involved, the patients also has made sur- sur~eon added. gery for this disease more ef- ;.; Of his own past habit ~~f fecti~e than it' was a~decade• smokingr the lecturer said he a ID Ravdin sai d go r. . -ecognized that' he had been, taking a much greater chance Another factor making for an improved situation ii~ sur- { gory is t'he growing use of ined• ical doctors who have made anesthesiology their life's pro- fession. of 'dyinR of Iung cancer than he "had any reason to take." Dr. Ravdin also discussed the American Cancer Society's program to eaacate the public on cancer danger signals and reviewed som.e of the ad. vances which have made sur- gery more effective in combat• ting cancer. The visitor said the society's education program has served not only to alert individiials Chances Improve In the field of surgery, Dr. Ravdin said that one of four persons who would have died of cancer a decade ago is being saved because of im- proved surgical procedures and because of earlier detec- tion of the disease. The doctor said improved procedures now make itt possi- ble for one-stage operations for cancer, whereas ten years ago the same procedure would have been done in several THE NEW YORK TIMES New York, New York June 28, 1960 . CANCER RATE VARIES . IN HAWAIIAN SURVEY The several racial groups in Hawaii have varying suscep±i- bility to cancer, Dr. Walter R Quisenberiy of the State De- partment of Health in Honolulu recently reported. He told a conference on cul- ture, society and health here that incidence of stomach can- cer in Hawaii was highest among Japanese men. Primary cancer of the liver is most fre- quent In Filipino men, possibly because the diets of , Filipino men are higher in carboty- drates and lower in protein and .vitamin B-1 than those of other ethnic groups. Cancer of the nasopharynx occurs most often in the Chi- nese. Dr. Quisenberry said this might be due to irritation from hot liquids. Filipino and Japanese men have the lowest incidence of lung cancer in Hawaii. These men have probabl.y smoked fewer cigareF tEs ovey the year; than Caucasian men, Dr. Quisenberry satd, The breast cancer rate is now five times higher among Caucasian than among Japa- men. Japanese women have been slower in giving up the nursing . of their children. The rate seems to be in- creasing as the Japanese women stop nursing babies. Caucasian women have can- cer of the large intestine more frequently than any other eth- nic group. Caucasian men have cancer of the prostate gland about , nine times more frequently than Japanese men: .