Proceedings of the First National Cancer Conference / American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. Public Health Serivce, Federal Security Agency.

  • National Cancer Conference 1949)
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the First National Cancer Conference / American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. Public Health Serivce, Federal Security Agency. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/354 (page 3)
    OUTLINE OF THE CONFERENCE: ITS BACKGROUND AND ITS PURPOSES by GHARLEs S. CAMERON, M.D. Medical and Scientific Director, American Cancer Society, New York, New York Assuming that each of you has had an opportunity to examine with more than casual attention the program of the Conference, it is possible that some are saying ‘““Why am I here?” and that others are noticing an unexpected unorthodoxy in the plan of the assem- bly and in the choice of its participants. Therefore, by explaining to you at the outset the considerations that have brought this Con- ference into being and by outlining the framework of its operation as we have conceived it, I hope to make you all feel that you are in the right church and even to assist you to the proper pew. There was a time, and it is within the memory of some who are still living, when cancer was the personal concern of but two pro- fessional disciplines—the surgeon and the pathologist. Although the contributions of a few surgeons were experimental and devel- opmental, acquisition of knowledge of cancer was, for the most. ? part, confined to observation alone and the observation was further ‘limited by unprecise tools, utterly inadequate for the job. Today we can look backward on the cancer field and we can see a change—literally the change of a lifetime. For one thing, we are in a position for the first time to estimate the resources of the enemy. Many, yes, I shall say most, of the disciplines of science have seen their duty and have enlisted; equipment has been pro- vided that will bring the cell and its contents and its behavior within the apprehension of the senses of man; money has been appropriated in insufficient but in increasing amounts, so that the annual budget for cancer has increased sixfold within the past ten years. In brief, we may say that the services of supply are being properly mobilized. But the rapid progress that has been made now creates a new hazard. I refer to the hazard of inadequate communication. As in