CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 14, 155-157, Copyright
© 1964 by American Cancer Society
The Results of Efforts for Asymptomatic Diagnosis of Cancer
Victor A. Gilbertsen M.D.1 and
Owen H. Wangensteen M.D.2
1 Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Cancer Detection Center at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
2 Professor of Surgery and Director of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota.
Early detection and prompt treatment of several varieties of cancer often appear to be followed by improvement in survival. Examples are cancers of the breast, rectum, colon, skin, and the cervix. Of particular note in the present study was the 100 per cent five-year survival without recurrence for the patient group with rectal carcinomas detected during follow-up.
Utilization of basic, well-known techniques of examination continues to be of fundamental value in detecting early cancers. In the present study, the employment of techniques available to the medical profession for half a century or more was responsible for detection of most of the identified cancers. Identification of any substantial proportion of potentially curable cancers of the pancreas, gall bladder, and stomach appears to require methods other than those currently employed.
