POSSIBLE CAUSE OF CANCER

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25140, 22 March 1947, Page 8

POSSIBLE CAUSE OF CANCER

WORK OF DUNEDIN SCIENTISTS

CONCLUSIONS PUBLISHED IN BRITAIN

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, March 21. la a recent number of the “British Journal of Experimental Pathology” there is a paper by Dr. H. D. Purves and Dr. W. E; Griesbach, of the Otago Medical School, which says that cancer may be caused by over-stimulation of the thyroid gland. This discovery follows on Another of Dr. Griesbach, Mr T. H. Kennedy, and Dr. Purves that goitre in animals could be cured by thiourea. It had been found that a plant extract would cure goitre. Mr Kennedy, the chemist ot the team, then showed that the active principle in the plant was thiourea. Clinical work in American hospitals quickly proved that foe Dunedin cure for goitre in animals was equally successful in foe treatment of human beings. Now, by using foe same drug, thiourea, in much greater dosage, Dr. Purves and Dr. Griesbach have caused cancer in animals. It may be alleged that thiourea is a two-edged weapon, but actually there is no danger of patients treated for goitre developing cancer, as the dosage necessary for curing goitre is far below that producing cancer. Most drugs have this double action. Strychnine, the deadly poison used against vermin, has, in smaller doses, a beneficial action on the heart. Morphia, in small doses, deadens pain, while larger amounts are fatal. From experiments on animals, medical men can calculate for any drug the therapeutic rdtio, which is the maximum clinical dose divided by foe minimum lethal dose. For some substances, like chloroform, it is low; for others, like thiourea, it is very high.