Cancer of the Cervix: The Immediate Necessity for Earlier Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract

In an earlier article on cancer of the cervix¹ the responsibility of the physician in cancer education was stressed. The present paper will consider not only the need for early diagnosis but the necessity of increasing the number of trained radiologists so that these cases will receive proper treatment wherever they are. The field represented by these two papers is a new one for me, suggested by a conversation between two of my gynecological colleagues. One was trained as a surgeon, and still operates on early cases of cancer of the cervix; while the other started his training as a surgeon but became one of the most expert radiologists in this field—the treatment of cancer of the cervix by radium. The radiologist, in discussing the indications for radium in malignant disease, remarked that in spite of its great curative value, especially in early cases, the number of such cases referred to him by gynecologists was pitifully small, and not on the increase, to which the gynecologist replied that he had very few early cases to refer.

I have just had the great privilege of studying the situation in regard to cancer of the cervix, in Paris and London, chiefly in Regaud's clinic, which has had a long experience, and in the Marie Curie Hospital in London, which has been functioning since 1929.