EDITORIAL. 



NEOPLASMS AMONG THE FILIPINOS. 



It has been variously stated by different writers that new growths and 

 more especially malignant tumors, are not only less common than in 

 temperate climates, but even rare in many tropical countries. There was 

 a more or less well-defined idea prevalent among the profession in 

 Manila that in the native inhabitants of the Philippines neoplasms are 

 uncommon, but no complete records were available bearing on the point. 



Malignant disease as a cause of death occurred twice among the first 

 series of 100 necropsies at the Philippine Medical School ; 2 cases of car- 

 cinoma of the greater curvature of the stomach, and 1 of the cheek and 

 antrum. 



Dudley, 1 writing on the prevalence of cancer in the Philippines after 

 an experience of ten years spent in the various islands, believes that cancer 

 exists in the Philippines to a greater extent than in the United States, 

 and that the statistics available on malignant and nonmalignant growths 

 are very incomplete. 



The following figures illustrating the frequency of neoplasms in Dr. 

 McDill's surgical clinic at the St. Paul's Hospital may be taken as fairly 

 typical, as the clinic draws on all classes of free patients, the material 

 coming not only from the city of Manila, but from the surrounding and 

 often distant provinces. 



The record of cases coming to operation from September 5, 1907, up 

 to December 19, 1908, shows a total of 377. Sixty-five of these cases, or 

 17.4 per cent, were operations for new growths, '37 benign and 28 

 malignant. 



Of the benign neoplasms, cystic ovarian disease leads in frequency, 

 there being 16 cases, of which 4 were double. Of uterine fibroids there 

 were 7 cases, the most frequent being the sub-serous variety. There 

 were 5 cases of fibromata of the skin and 2 each of osteomata of the head 

 and intracanalicular myxomata of the breast. There was but one case of 

 adenoma of the breast; one dentigerous cyst of the lower jaw; one cyst 

 of the neck (thyroglossal duct) ; one cyst of the anterior wall of the 

 vagina, and one epulis. 



1 The Prevalence of Cancer in the Philippine Islands, Journ. Amer. Med. Ass. 

 (1908), 50, 1663 to 1665. 



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