CANCER RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 4, 6 January 1933, Page 2

CANCER RESEARCH.

WORK IN DUNEDIN. HALF-YEARLY REPORT. EXPERIMENTS WITH FOWLS. A half-yearly progress report from the laboratory of the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign has been furnished for the Medical and Research Committee by Dr. A. M. Begg, of Otago University, who is director of investigation into the nature and causes of cancer. As the report is of necessity somewhat technical and not likely to be well understood by the general public, the president of the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, Dr. J. S. Elliott, has assisted in summarising it, fio as to make it suitable for the lay public. In his report, Dr. Bcgg expresses regret that owing to the strain on the funds of the New Zealand branch, Mr. Aitken, the chemist formerly working with Dr. Begg at the Otago University, had relinquished his position, but has been appointed to the staff of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London. This work relates to investigations done in New Zealand as to the difference in the serum of the blood of cancerous and normal animals; and also to very important and conclusive investigations into the Bendien test for cancer, which was brought prominently before the public, recently, but has proved to be very disappointing. Other work of great importance done in New Zealand in regard to the use of sodium oleative, a form of soap, is being published also in scientific papers abroad.

Irritating Substances. With reference to the work done in the cancer research laboratory in New Zealand during the last half-year, this has been varied, but arranged with a view to avoid duplicating similar investigations done in other parts of the world, more particularly in the British Empire. In Dunediu during the halfyear various irritating antiseptics, such as izal, have been repeatedly applied to mice without in any case having produced cancer by irritation. Furthermore, the continued injections into healthy mice of filtered material from tar warts and tar cancers has failed to induce cancer in such animals. Aluminium Tests. It is frequently stated that the present-day use of aluminium for cooking utensils may be an important factor in the increase of cancer. This question has been investigated very fully at Dunediu. The repeated injection of aluminium oxide into mice bas had no effect, nor does the addition of aluminium make a nitrate from a mouse growth more active. It is ako stated on good authority that cancer cells, compared with normal cells, contain less calcium and more potassium. In the New Zealand research work the calcium filtrate from mammalian cancer has been reduced, but has not been made thereby more virulent. It is known that filtrates from cancer, of the domestic Yowl are highly infective, but Dr. Begg'is unable up to the present to demonstrate directly that there is any infective agent in mammalian tumours. This, .has, of course, an important bearing on the virus theory of cancer brought forward by Barnard and Gye. As has been shown in previous reports, fowls treated with nitrates from mouse growths have nearly all shown some partial immunity- to cancer .inoculation. By this method recently in one case complete immunity has been obtained. It may be that the infection is not a virus, as Gye believes, but a ferment yet to be determined.

In tiiig, connection, in the work in Dunedin an ultra-microscope, as devised by Barnard, would be of great use, but expense is an obstacle. Sodium Oleate Tests. Very properlv, most of the time of the laboratory during the period covered bv the last report has been given to investigation of the cure of cancer, and to this°end sodium oleate his been freely used. Several domestic fowls suffering from the rapidly fatal Rous cancer have been treated with this preparation, and 8 to 10 per cent have been cured. Of the uncured eases, 20 per cent showed marked temporary improvement, and in all the fatal issue'was definitely delayed. Though the cures are admittedly a small proportion, yet it must be remembered that Rous saVcoma. is definitely incurable by the use of surgery or of radium, and that once the tumour is big enough to be felt the bird's lease of life is 10 lo 14 days, or even The fact that soap caii influence such a growth is of the utmost importance, and Dr. Begg and his staff are endeavouring to find sonic explanation. So far, olive oil soap has been used, but soap made from castor oil and cod liver oil is now being investigated. In the making of these soaps it is necessary to remove a chemical substance called cholesterol, which has been found to favour the rate of growth and spread of various tumours. As the blood serum of all the cured fowls has shown a high lipolytic, or fat-splitting activity, the possibility that such a condition is related to the action of soap on cancer is being studied. . Clinical Treatment. It has been found that the injection of fresh liver, tissue increases the fatsplitting power of the blood serum, but the use of this material in fowls does not appear to have made them more amenable to the soap treatment. It is possible, however, that the disruption of the tumour cells in the cured fowls does increase the lipolytic or fat-splitting power of their serum.' As has been already olxserved, research has shown that the Bendien test for cancer is not reliable when applied to human cases, and the reports that it is often positive in diseases other than cancer render it still more doubtful as a diagnostic aid. However, investigation of the lipolytic test, that is the capacity for splitting up the fats, as previously explained, shows much greater reliability, but the numbers of cases are too few "to permit of a definite statement; and, moreover, the lipolvtic test has not been sufficiently studied in regard to diseases other than cancer. The effects of the clinical' treatment of cancer are best shown in the annual reports of the cancer clinics in the large centres in New Zealand; but it is interesting to note that in Dr. Begg's reports under review a patient suffering from cancer of the- prostate gland, with recurrence in the spine, has been treated with injections of sodjum oleate. This treatment has been continued for three months, and apparently has had no effect on the spinal recurrence; but the cancerous recurrence in the vicinity of the bladder has definitely diminished in size.