September 18, 1984

The Chase Manhattan Corporation has ordered its staff to cut expenses by 6 percent from the amount budgeted at the beginning of the year, according to an internal Chase publication. Thomas G. Labrecque, Chase's president, was responsible for the austerity move, which is expected to bring the bank's staff to 37,800 by the end of the year, from the 39,800 that was budgeted for at the beginning of the year. Other banks have also been adopting austerity programs. Citibank, for example, has put into effect what it calls Operation Delta, in which 2,500 officers have been asked to cut expenses by 40 percent by year-end. But the bank said the program was primarily an exercise to establish new priorities and that it did not expect actually to cut expenses by that amount.

A small but growing band of distinguished analysts is challenging proclamations by Government officials and leading cancer scientists that great advances have been made in ''curing'' cancer patients. The analysts suggest that the highly touted gains in ''survival rates'' among cancer patients in recent years are partly, or perhaps even largely, a statistical mirage, caused more by changes in the way cancer is detected and defined than by any real gains in the ability of doctors to cure cancer once it is detected. However, leaders of the nation's cancer research and treatment establishment dismiss the criticism as the undocumented assertions of analysts who do not fully understand the latest advances in the clinical detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. ''I think it's a bunch of nonsense,'' said Vincent T. DeVita Jr., director of the National Cancer Institute. ''We're saving thousands of lives today that weren't saved 20 years ago. To me, that's pretty damn exciting.''

MINIMUM competency tests, already endorsed by at least 40 states for high school students, are now making themselves felt at the college level as well. Under a new Florida law, sophomores at all public universities will soon be required to pass tests in basic academic skills before they become full-fledged juniors. Community college graduates will have to pass the test in order to transfer to four-year colleges. The City University of New York was a pioneer in using such tests for its own colleges in 1978, and the New Jersey State Board of Higher Education is working on a similar proposal, first suggested earlier this year by a statewide study group. Students in all public institutions would have to pass tests in English and mathematics at the end of their sophomore year and a test in writing related to their major field as a condition for graduation.

An article in the Arts and Leisure section on Sunday about art outside New York misstated the current location of the touring exhibition ''Treasures From the Shanghai Museum.'' It is in the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian in Washington, where it is to remain through Nov. 30.

A listing of cooking schools in The Living Section on Wednesday misidentified the teacher of the Gourmet Kitchen course at Abraham & Straus. He is Leonard Klein.