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Cancer Overview¹

Division of Cancer Control and Rehabilitation, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20205

Cancer is a very common group of diseases. There are 700,000 cases of the disease reported each year, and about 350,000 persons die of these diseases.

There is extensive literature and documentation relative to alcohol as a probable factor in the development of head, neck, and esophageal cancers among others. However, there is little in the literature relative to the interrelationship of alcohol and cancer in the area of cancer treatment.

Dignity of the dying patient and his family is maintained, and home care is a vital component. While alcohol use is not generally written about, it is used as desired by the patient. A "Brompton's-type cocktail," a mixture of morphine, cocaine, and alcohol, forms a basis of pain control in English and many United States' hospices.

One purpose in today's conference is to look at another lifestyle factor, alcohol, to determine its role alone or in conjunction with other factors in the causation of cancer. Are there high risk groups which need attention in alcohol cancer prevention programs?

¹ Presented at the Alcohol and Cancer Workshop, October 23 and 24, 1978, Bethesda, Md.