"Tremendous Efforts Are Being Made For Fighting Cancer Of All Types"
May 4, 1961	Bradenton Herald	May 5, 1961
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		Transcription from microfilm
		for historical purposes
		by Edward T. Haslam, Dec. 2008
		(Editor's note: The follow-
		ing manuscript was submit-
		ted to The Herald by Judy
		Vary, outstanding young
		science student of Manatee
		High School.  Judy is special-
		izing on cancer reseaerch and
		she said the article, prepared
		by experts, soon will appear
		in the National Biological
		Teachers Association mag-
		azine).
		Someday, we are told, cancer
		will join the long ranks of
		completely - curable diseases.
		Someday, we are promised,
		there will be found a cure for
		cancer of all kinds.  But few of
		us realize the tremendous ef-
		forts being made against the
		dread disease in the many lab-
		oratories and hospitals through-
		out the country, or of the mil-
		lions of man-hours being spent
		everywhere by dedicated men
		and women who are doing their
		best to find some of the an-
		swers to our nation's second-
		greatest killer-disease.
		The results of such work are
		sometimes, even often, disap-
		pointing, but progress is now be-
		ing made at an ever-increasing
		rate.  For example, children with
		leukemia could be expected to
		live only as long as five or six
		months with optimum treatments
		a few years ago.  Now some sur-
		vive as long as five years with
		various new treatments, such as
		the injection of cancer-recessor
		drugs - drugs which regress leu-
		kemic activity for ever increasing
		periods of time - in the patient.
		Some of the advances against
		cancer were recently released for
		the first time to the press by
		the top research scientists in the
		nation last month where the
		Doctor's Motel at St. Petersburg
		was host to the annual Science
		Writers' Seminar sponsored by
		the American Cancer Society.
		Newsmen from every major news-
		paper in the United States were
		present at the exclusive confer-
		ence.  Many of the findings pre-
		sented were dramatically encour-
		aging, pointing to a possible cure
		for cancer within the next few
		decades.
		DRUGS
		Dr. George Moore, director of
		the Roswell Park Memorial In-
		stitute for Cancer Research in
		Buffalo, reported that there are
		now drugs existing capable of
		curing 70 per cent of the can-
		cerous growths in mice when
		used in conjustion with irradia-
		tion.  These drugs, Thio-Tepa and
		AB-112, are now being tested on
		human volunteers with hopelessly-
		advanced cases of cancer.  The
		drugs seem to work just as well
		in men, but they are highly-spe-
		cific: that is, they work only on
		special types of cancer.  This is
		a common drawback of most of
		the anti-cancer drugs now in uses.
		One big problem now facing
		pathologists is the determina-
		tion of cancerous tissues.  Some-
		times the pronouncement of a
		specimen of tissue as being ma-
		lignant may mean amputation of
		a whole limb; if the diagnosis is
		incorrect, the life of the patient
		has been made vastly more dif-
		ficult for no consequence.  Dr.
		A. Clark Griffin to the group
		that perhaps this problem may
		soon be at least partially solved.
		He and his staff has found a
		toxohormone in the tissues of
		cancerous animals and humans
		which has not been found in
		normal specimens.  It is a by-
		product of carcinomous activity,
		composed of 85 percent poly-
		peptides and about 20 percent
		phosphollpids.  It depresses the
		liver's production of catalase -
		an enzyme necessary for the
		production of red blood cells.
		EFFECTS
		Many of the drugs which could
		be successfully used in anti-can-
		cer therapy cannot be adminis-
		tered because of the dangerous
		toxic effects on sensitive organs
		or tissues in the body which are
		non-cancerous.  Dr. Claude Hitch-
		cock and his associates from Min-
		neapolis General Hospital told of
		the special surgical procedures in-
		volving hypothermia, a rapid lower-
		ing of body or tissue's normal
		temperature to slightly above
		freezing point, drainage of fluids
		and perfusion of the removed or-
		gan with anti-cancer drugs.  Kid-
		neys, for example, were removed
		from living baboons, "frozen,"
		perfused, slowly "thawed," and
		replaced in the anesthetized ani-
		mal after up to 18 hours with
		no apparent ill effects.  The po-
		tentials involved are enormous.
		Consider, for example, cancer of
		the lung being treated by removal
		of the lung and complete eradica-
		tion of the cancer by means of
		drugs which would normally pois-
		on the whole body dangerously.
		The lung could be replaced in the
		body whenever the patient would
		be strong enough to undergo a
		second operation safely, or, if pos-
		sible, the treated organ could be
		replaced as soon as a few hours!
		The day may come when whole
		brains could be transplanted by
		such a method.
		BLOOD
		Is the blood of a person with
		cancer different from that of a
		normal person?  Dr. Lawrence
		Levine told of a new series of
		experiments where, by means of
		warming DNA (deoxyribonuclaic
		acid) extracts - which are ex-
		tracts of the nucleic acid found
		in the nuclei of cells which con-
		trols heredity and directs the syn-
		thesis of chemical compounds in
		every cell, as well as being
		necessary to the cell's growth
		and existence - which were taken
		from cancerous and normal tis-
		sues, were found to molecularly
		"unwrap" from their essential
		structures - long, winding
		chains which-exposed more of
		their reactive centers.  This ex-
		posure caused an antibody-stimu
		lating reaction when injected into
		healthy animals; however, more
		antibody production was noted
		from DNA extracts thus treated
		from cancerous tissues than from
		normal.  The possibilities that a
		"vaccine" from such extracts could
		be made was suggested, and
		much work in this field is being
		planned.  These extracts were also
		taken from the blood of healthy
		and cancerous patients, and simi-
		lar reactions were found to occur,
		demonstrating that there was some
		essential difference to the
		blood of cancerous human beings.
		The question of a vaccine for
		cancer has been raised by
		many of these scientists. Dr.
		Caitleau related how she inject-
		ed attenuated (weakened) can-
		cer cells from white mice into
		healthy animals.  The weakened
		cells did not produce cancer in
		these animals, although un-
		weakened cells did so within a
		few weeks.  She found that ani-
		mals injected with the atten-
		uated cancer cells which were
		later re-injected with cancerous
		tissues which were not weaken-
		ed, still did not develop cancer!
		The suggestion that a vaccine
		had been created in these mice
		was very seriously considered.
		More extensive research is to
		be conducted along these lines.
		Could such a "vaccine" work for
		man?
		TEAM
		The husband and wife research
		team of Drs. Ruth M. and John
		B. Graham have gone this one
		step further.  They produced simi-
		lar vaccines - and actually have
		tested them on human beings
		with cancer.  The results, although
		not definite, are not unencour-
		aging.  It was found that the in-
		jections of the "vaccine" caused
		alterations at the site of injec-
		tion in about 40 per cent of the
		patients.  Those who did not re-
		act were all dead despite every
		kind of therapy available after a
		period of only one year.  However,
		33 per cent of the persons who
		suffered from ulceration at the
		site of injection were still alive
		at the end of one year.  Even
		after 30 months, 39 out of 307 of
		these patient were still alive.  So
		the vaccine idea may have some
		worth even though vast improve-
		ments of the treatment are need
		ed.
		A Chinese scientist working in
		this country by the name of Dr.
		Mann Chiang Niu has found a
		way to change cancerous cells
		into normal cells and normal cells
		into cancerous ones using an in-
		cubation method with RNA (ribo-
		nucleic acid) extracts.  He took
		RNA from cancerous liver tissues
		and incubated normal liver cells
		in it.  The cells became cancerous.
		Cancerous liver cells, however,
		when incubated with RNA ex-
		tracts from normal cells, lost
		their malignancy and apparently
		became normal cells in every
		way.
		Many scientists now believe
		that a majority of cancers may
		be caused by viruses that are
		non-contagious.  Such viruses
		capable of producing cancer in
		mice have been found with the
		aid of the electron microscope.
		One especially virulent type,
		Polyoma, causes at least 23 dif-
		ferent kinds of cancer in mice!!
		Fortunately, this virus is not
		transferable in humans, for the
		polyoma virus has be found,
		due to the mouse population's
		wide desemination, to exist in
		dairys, graineries, mills, and
		bakeries, as well as in the
		stomachs of cattle who have
		eaten comtaminated hay and
		corn.  The virus is easily killed,
		however, and no danger to us.
		Even though the mice don't
		seem to give us cancer, the
		mice haven't been so lucky, in
		relation to humans. Filtrates
		from carcinomas taken from
		humans that are injected in
		mice, says Dr. James T. Grace,
		cause cancer in the mice in up
		to 17 per cent of the animals
		after only a half-a-year.
		We always used to maintain
		that the nucleus of a human cell
		contained 46 chromosomes.  Chro-
		mosomes are the "bags" in the
		nucleus which hold the genes that
		control heredity, cell-division, and
		the growth of the cell to a large
		extent.  Dr. Avery A. Sandberg,
		associated with the American
		Cancer Society, told us the con-
		ferences that cells in humans
		have been found whose nuclei
		contain up to 92 chromosomes!
		These abnormal cells have been
		found in Mongoloid idiots, leukem-
		ians and those with cancer as
		well.  The number may range
		anywhere from 50 to 75 or more,
		and it is theoretically-supposed
		that the chromosomes, which
		usually split completely in half
		when the cell divides (mitosis)
		probably don't split completely
		until after the cell has divided.
		This means that one cell, not
		having enough chromosomes, dies
		in the systems, while the other,
		with more than a normal amout
		of the vital units becomes abnor-
		mal; this abnormality may be
		cancer.  So we know a lot about
		cancer now.  But David knew a
		lot about Goliath.  The true prob-
		lem today is to find the right
		rock to hit him with!
		STUDY
		Carcinogens - cancer-producing
		or inducing substances, are now
		being studied to determine how
		they affect the cell to make it
		cancerous.  There are several
		theories, but most are linked to
		the chromosome explanation and
		the two nucleic acids found in
		the heart of the cell - DNA and
		RNA.  Dr. Emmanuel Farber has
		concluded after extensive re-
		search that carcinogens probably
		act on nucleotid segments of the
		nucleic acid molecules, particular-
		ly those of DNA.  The reaction to
		the carcinogens causes bizarre
		changes in the chain-like compo-
		sition of the acids, making them
		resemble molecular struc-
		tures found in a virus nucleic
		acid that is capable of producing
		cancer in mice.  The doctor be-
		lieves that the carcinogens - tars,
		oils, cigarette smoke, arsenic,
		etc. - cause aberrations similar to
		those induced by viruses or radia-
		tion in the cell, eventually causing
		cancer due to this alteration in
		the basic elements of the cell's
		nucleotid structures.
		Probably the most interesting
		study on carcinogenic agents
		was conducted by Dr. D. Caylee
		Hammond of the Statistical Re-
		search section of the ACS.  His
		work with 13, 068 persons in re-
		lation to the smoking habits
		and the effects of smoking was
		laterpreted at the seminar.
		Some very auspicious fingers
		now seem to point out that
		smoking causes cancer.  Fur-
		ther, filters seem to hlep very
		little.  Some of the answers
		given for the questionaires were
		significant.  For example, 26.2
		per cent of smokers who
		smokes two packs of cigarettes
		a day complained of nervous
		tension, while onle 7.2 per cent
		of non-smokers had this com-
		plaint.  Other figures, such as
		coughing, loss of appetite, and
		fatigue, were correspondingly
		high for smokers as compared
		with non-smokers.  Figures aslo
		indicate another startling fact:
		divorced or separated women
		smoked far more cigarettes
		than did unmarried, married, or
		widowed women!  In some cases,
		the difference amounted to over
		36 per cent more cigarettes.
		Statistics also pointed out that
		the smoker is nine times more
		likely to develop cancer of the
		lungs than the non-smoker
		Dr. Michael B. Shimkin report-
		ed that a serious epidemic of
		hepatic sarcocarcinoma - liver
		cancer - has broken out in fish
		hatcheries.  The reason, it was
		found, was due to feeding the
		fish high-carbohydrate diets in-
		stead of the normal high-protein
		fare, because it was cheaper for
		the hatcheries to supply.  The re-
		sult acted as a carcinogenic agent
		on the sensitive livers of the
		fish - causing huge white tumors
		in the dark flesh of the organ,
		especially in older fish.  The more-
		expensive, high-protein diet has
		been resumed in most of the
		hatcheries at this date, and the
		cancer is beginning to die out.
		EDUCATIONAL
		The entire seminar was a most
		educational, intellectually stim-
		ulating, and enjoyable affair!  It
		is extremely difficult to even re-
		late half of the discoveries re-
		leased to the public for the first
		time, and this outline is of neces-
		sity inadequate.  But the fact that
		these discoveries are taking place -
		and there are so many! - only
		means that the battle against
		cancer - man's most ancient and
		painful enemy - is being waged
		harder than ever.  We're close to
		a final answer to cancer - perhaps
		within the next two or three
		decades or even sooner.  But it
		takes cooperation, facilities,
		funds.  We all can't don a white
		coat and work in a laboratory,
		but we all can help the battle
		against cancer by giving gen-
		erously to the American Cancer
		Society: which sponsors these
		vitally important activities.  Re-
		member more persons have died
		from cancer in the last 50 years
		than from all of history's great
		wars.  It's up to you to fight
		cancer - with a "check up - and a
		check!!!"