CANCER RESEARCH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 46, 4 December 1945, Page 3

CANCER RESEARCH

HOPE FROM IMPROVED FACILITIES NEW YORK, Dec. 2. “Scientists are about to point the way toward the cure of certain kinds of cancer, but that does not mean we will be able to cure all forms of malignancy. We hope in a few years that we can show a significant percentages of success in the treatment of some varieties,” Professor T. J. Lawrence told a science writer of the Associated Press. “The cyclotron, which produced the first plutonium for atomic bomb research, at present is more powerful because it has been rebuilt and these efforts are reinforced by other cyclotrons. American medical research workers will now have much larger radio-active substances for their work oir cancer and other diseases. “It also means that. the number of research workers is greatly increased and eventually they will be able to exert a mass effort, which may speed ultimate results in medicine as did the combined efforts of scientists hasten the achievement of atomic explosives.” Professor Lawrence said they will have immediately at their disposal a long-life radio-active carbon, a comparatively new substance whose medical patentialities were yet unknown, but which were certain to play an important part in research. Dr. J. G.. Hamilton assistant professor of medicine and radiology, said that since carbon was the key element of all living matter, research workers were able to apply its radio-active form to all parts of the body, including it "in diet or injections. Whether it has disease-fighting powers remains to be seen.