First in fear and dread: Cancer control in Saskatchewan, the first decade - 1929-1939

In 1931 Saskatchewan became the first jurisdiction in Canada to introduce a province-wide program for the control of cancer. The program was conceived in 1929 by the cancer committee of the Saskatchewan Medical Association. The provincial government promptly took up the committee’s recommendations for centralization of cancer care in two clinics and emphasis on radiotherapy as a mode of treatment. The following year the Saskatchewan Assembly approved The Saskatchewan Cancer Commission Act, as prepared by Health Minister F. D. Munroe, himself a physician. The Regina Cancer Clinic opened at the end of 1931 and the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic at the beginning of 1932. This initial phase of the conception and introduction of cancer control in Saskatchewan is notable for the harmony of agreement among its planners and for the rapidity with which it was introduced. Progress during the remainder of the first decade was much slower, as competing interests and priorities among a larger group of individuals and institutions, together with the Depression, held back the initial momentum. Initially, however, weaknesses accompanied the strengths of the program. Weaknesses included the reluctance of some physicians to cooperate wholeheartedly as they feared the perceived effects of the incursion of a government agency in patient care plus the increasing financial burden placed on the hospitals. The strengths of the program included the existence of the program where none had been present earlier, the availability of a diagnostic and therapeutic service for patients, and a comprehensive system of patient records. In particular, the cancer control program in its first decade was the basis for notable progress in later decades and a model for other jurisdictions.