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Show Society Plans Film Presentation "We know that we could save many more people from j colon-rectal cancer (cancer of j the lower digestive tract) than we do at present if they would only help us, Dr. Richard Rich-ard Y. Card, chairman of the medical board of the American Ameri-can Cancer Society's Utah division di-vision observed recently. "The; basic problem is getting them "A physical examination," he said, "will give a clean bill of health, so far as cancer can-cer is concerned. And when colon-rectum cancer is found at an early enough stage, almost al-most three out of four cases might be saved. Today the fraction who actually are saved sav-ed is only four in ten." to come to the physician for a thorough physical examination examina-tion each year." Iron County Chapter of the Cancer Society has arranged for an outstanding film dealing deal-ing with this problem, to be shown to the public on Wednesday, Wed-nesday, March 1 The film will be presented in the East Elementary School auditorium at 8 p. m. and I everyone is encouraged and invited to attend. Following the film presentation Dr. David Dav-id Brown will discuss the film and answer questions relative to the problem of colon-rectal cancer. Physicians such as Dr. Card Indicated that one of the necessary ne-cessary phases of examination examina-tion is a "procto." "Procto" Dr. Card explained, Is a common bit of medical shorthand for a special type of examinations which employs the protoscope an ilumin-ating ilumin-ating viewing device for the lower part of the intestines. intes-tines. "The reason why this is so important," he continued, "Is that cancer of the colon and the rectum is the single most common form of internal cancer can-cer in the country today. It affects about 73,000 Americans each year, and about 44,000 a .year die from it. "It's rather odd and sad, when you think about it, but people have a strange way of reacting to numbers like those. If you are told the entire population pop-ulation of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., was going to die during the next year, they'd feel a sense of shock. But that figure is roughly 5,000 less than the number who will die of colon-rectal colon-rectal cancer, unless the situation sit-uation improves radically." When asked if the prospects were good for such improvement, improve-ment, Dr. Card replied that they could be, but that it would be up to the individual. |