Cancer Antibodies Discovered By Dr. Salk

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 9

Cancer Antibodies Discovered By Dr. Salk

(Rec. 7 p.m.)

NEW YORK, December 26. Antibodies which attack both cancer and normal human cells have been produced in laboratory tests, Dr. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of poliomyelitis vaccine, said today.

In the journal, “Science,” Dr. Salk also told of a colour test to measure the amount of antibodies or disease fighting agents in the blood.

Earlier, other scientists had suecessfully immunised some ani-

mals, usually mice and rats, to some types of cancer, the article said. It has not yet been established whether there is an antibody common to all types of cancer.

Dr. Salk said that, while he, too, had successfully produced an antibody manufacturing serum, the antibodies were potent in testtubes against both normal and cancerous tissue at the same time. He said he arrived at these conclusions while searching for a better tissue with which to cultivate polio virus for vaccine purposes. Specifically, he was experimenting with cells from a monkey’s heart. As earlier experiments had in-

dicated, these heart cells, growing and reproducing in a test tube, actually changed somewhat in form from those originally takan from the monkey’s heart. Dr. Salk said he had tested laboratory animals with a serum made from these monkey heart cells. His method of measuring antibodies would ‘probably prove useful to other scientists conducting research in the field of immunology, he said.