A top gynecologist of the m tion said here Wednesday ths one of the most improtant fac tors in the present fight agains cancer is the co-operavtion be ing received from the news papers.
"Keep it up, don't sell your self short," begged Dr. Bayarc "Nick" Carter, Durham, N. C president of the Americar Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
. The physician said a gynecologist can't very well go out into the highways and byways
•and urge women to come in ani have test made for possible can cer of the cervix. '
REMINDERS URGED
"But the newspapers, the ra dio and the television can re mind the women of America o the importance of such a test,' added the gynecologist. He d'e livered the sixth annual Grat fagnino lecture Wednesday ai the Louisiana State University Medical school.
Dr. .Carter said it is vital to detect cancer of the cervix in its early stages, while it's still on the surface -and more easily curable.
The gynecologist said also: 1. Hypnosis -should, be employed as an aid in childbirth
"only on demand and only under tfre control of a psychiatrist."
2. More money is spent in this nation every year for animal husbandry than for the care of American ( womanhood.
3. People who go around saying, "the doctor won't touch me unless I pay," apparently don't realize that the physicians of New Orleans donate hours and hours of free service at Charity hospital.
4. Give the American public socialized medicine for two years and they'll begin screaming to high heaven.
; Dr. Carter said no one knows the cause of cancer of the cervix.
CAN DETECT CANCER
"But its presence can be de-
| jtected with the aid of the vaginal
I jsmear," he added. "If the smear
j. lis positive then a proper, diagnos-
| /tic biopsy can be used as the
| (basis, for a pathological diagnosis.
In a cone biopsy many sections
are checked and usually if it is
a surface cancer the troubled
area is removed."
The gynegolocist said if it's a surface cancer, it can be left in; there are two schools of thought on the subject.
"There are those, who insist on removal of the_uterus even
when the cancer is still a surface cancer," he explained. "But at Duke we belong to the more; conservative school of thought.! If the woman has had six to eight! j children, we say go ahead and! remove the uterus. If* on the other hand, she has none and she's intelligent we take the calculated risk and permit her to go on and have children. Under constant supervision of course, including regular vaginal smears."!
TEST FOR ALL AGES Dr. Carter said women of all ages should receive the smear test; that it should not be confined to the over-40 age group. He said the incidence of this type of cancer in the 20 to 30 age group is about 10 per cent. Dr. Carter was welcomecTlby Dr. Peter Graf fagnino, founder and proTesior-emeritus of the department of gynecology and obstetrics at the LSU Medical school—the man in whose honor the lecture "was given. Also on band to welcome him was Dr. Conrad Collins and Dr. Abe Mickal, present director of the de-parmient of gynecology and obstetrics at LSU.
On Friday, Dr. Carter will attend the opening of a two-day council meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and gynecologists, an organization he once headed. Dr. Woodard D. Beacham of New Orleans, first president of the college, will preside at Council sessions at the Monteleone hotel.
PHOTO: Dr. Bayard Carter of Durham Noth Carolina and Dr. Peter Graffagnino
