Blacks’ blood and cancer

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33191, 3 April 1973, Page 15

Blacks’ blood and cancer

. (N Z PA.-Reuter—Copyright) NOGALES (Arizona), April 2. Two Swedish scientists reported evidence today that the blood of Negroes might carry a powerful weapon against a dangerous type of skin cancer.

Dr Karl-Erik Hellstrom and I his wife, Dr Ingegerd Hell(strom, of the University of 'Washington, told science writers at a special seminar sponsored by the American | Cancer Society that they; [found “completely by acci-l I dent” that plasma' taken from Negroes apparently attacked i malignant melanoma tu-l imours.

The Hellstroms have reported in recent years that substances they call blocking antibodies are apparently able to stop a person’s can-cer-killing lymphocytes from attacking malignant cells, thus allowing the tumours to kill the patient. They reported that they had been working to deterimine how these blocking (antibodies could be unblocked. “Serum from blacks seems Ito have this unblocking ability.” Mrs Hellstrom said, perhaps leaving a patient’s own [lymphocytes free to attack [melanoma tumours. “Blacks’ 'plasma seems to kill melanorna, but has no effect [against normal cells or other Itypes of tumours,” she said. I She also pointed out that

this skin cancer—known for its prevalence and difficulty of cure—“is very rare among Negroes in the United States, although a different type of melanoma is often found among blacks in Africa.” Melanoma is known, however, as the “black cancer,” not because it attacks Negroes, but because of the concentration of black melanin pigment found in the tumours themselves. “It’s unclear at present,” she said, “but this (effectiveness against melanoma) seems to have something to do with the melanin” which is the source of colour in the dark skin. She said that about 80 per cent of the Negroes tested had this tumour-combating ability. “We’re seeing that the] plasma from blacks may be!

able to change the picture (of malignant melanoma) in a favourable way,” she said.

The scientist said that a pilot study had been going on for about a year involving six patients, and that a random study would begin on July 1. “We think it will take two or three years before we know anything,” she said. She emphasised carefully that most of this research — except with the six melanoma patients—had been done only in test-tubes. Her husband noted that the finding could eventually “change the immunological picture. We’ve seen the signs, but it’s still too short a period of time” to tell what the results would be. “We’re encouraged enough, though, to go ahead. We think it’s worth while to keep working on it.”