Um illvøkstur í Eiðis læknadømi 27. juni 1920 —26. juni 1952

Abstract

In tlhe 32 years fronn 27/6/1920 to 26/6/1952 there were 124 cases of canoer in the medical district of Eiði, iFaroe Islands. The average population was 2256, giving 17,2 inew cases per 10.000 iinihabitants. The 124 cases are given in Table I aceording to the location of the oomplakit and 'the outcome was íhat 101 of tbe 124 died of cancer. The mortality rate f ox canoer was thus 14 per 10.000 inhabitants. 3 otlher persons had canoer when they died, but this was not the cause of deatih. 7 were operated on for cainoer, and were apfparentlly free from i,t at death, though recidivity was etill possible. 

3 persons operated on for oanoer wexe still living in June 1954. 2 of them without metastasis but reoidivky and meljastasis were stíil possibillities. At the end of the period there was 1 case of cancer in tlhe distriot. Ten were cured. Persons were only Qonsidered cured if there were no recedivity or metastasis 5 years after the operation.

The fatal cases are shown on Table II accordiing to age and sex. Cancer cutis (jacies). Iin 7 cases Qancer began on the face. 1 of
tíiese was operated on in 1929 for canoer of the nose, in 1930 for cancer on the lefit temple, in 1932 for a canoerous induration on the forehead and in 1941 a cancerous swelling on tlhe aipper lip was removed. There will soarcely have been any connection between tlhese growths.

Cancer labii inf. Tbere are 2 men and 2 women with this form of the disease. The 2 meai ihave been invenerate pipe smokers since youljh. They were operated on in 1925 and 1922 aged 76 and 67 respeatively. They had both had cancer of the lower lip onoe before.

Tihe first man had <tlhe original cancerous induration removed in 1909, the second in 1919. The isores were near the coraers of the 'inouilih; nei'Jher of them had oancer on the samie side -twice. One of the women too had been a confirmed pipe-smoker. Her itumour was removed in 1924, when she was 85 years old. In the casc of the other woman, ithe cancer which appeared roughly in ithe middle of the lip seemed to have h&gn caused by a loose tooth m the upper jaw_ whioh for a long time had continuaJly been striking that point on tihe lip wlhere Iater an ulcex formed. It was removed in 1932, the patient being 66.

Cancer ventriculi. Not less than 45 suffered and died from cancer ventriculi, acoouting for 45 % of all deaths and for 36 % of
all cases. By far the greater nuxnber were women (27 as against 18 men). Up to the age of 65 there was about as many women as men, but after that age many more women tlhan men. 

ancer wesicae felleae. 2 men died of this disease. Neither of them had quiite natural gall bladders before the onset of cancer. The lder man was operated on in 1938, aged 58; he had had aa attack of gall stones with jaundice in 1935. On being operated the gaU bladder was found to 'be so hard 'that it was impossible to say if it still contained stones or not. Tihe otíher patient was operated on for gall stones in 1927, when over 100 were over removed. He beeame a paratyphoid carrier in JNov. 1945. Ici 1948 he wished to be operated on for ithe removal of the gall bladder in the hope of getting rid 'of the paratyphoid bacilli. The operation revealed gall stones again and, quite unexpectedly, cancer vesicae felileae. He died the same year, aged 51.
Cancer maminae, occured in 19 womem, aind caused the death of 13. 2 oild women wiho were opera.ted on died 2 and 9 moaths respeotively after the operation of dementia senihs. They lived for too ishoit a period for one to say wether ithey would have ever been cured. In the case of a woman operated on in 1951, it is still too early to pass judgement. 3 patients reoovered. The woimeai wiho had had children seem ito have cancer at an earlier age than those who had had none. IIJ no fewer than 11 of the 19 cases the cancer arose in the gands of the brast whiclh had either been the seat of disease, often long before the onset of cancer or were already oitherwise aibnormal. Tahle VI. 2 of ithe 19 had cancer in boith breasts; in the case of one it began in the left breast gland, with the oither in the right. Only 4 over the remaining 17 had the disease in ilhe right hreasit, wíhereas 13 íhad it in the left. Pathologic anatomical findings are given in Table VIII. 8 cases oj sarcoma,. including ithe oase of 1 man aged 56 who died in 1951 of ohondroisarcoima metastasis. The disease began on the basic bone of the 4th toe on the left foot. This bone was in any case frorn •the lOth or l l th year onwards wider ithan the corresponding one on the ileft foo,t. In 1942 it was atruok by a ]>iece of stone during blasting, after which the growth in question appeared.

From the foregoing it is appearenit that >time after itime a purely medhanical aotion has provoked ihe outbreak of cancer, a,s with all 4 cases of c. ]abii. inf. (pipe and loose tooth) and wiith hoih cases of c. vesicae felleae (gall stcines). The same can be said abonit one man with chondrosarcoma, whose disease was provoked ithrough his being struck hy a istone. To this may be added that a good quarter of llhe 19 cases of c. mammae had had mastitis in the same breast while in more than half of the 19 cases the breast gland was in some way abnormal.