CANCER

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 July 1925, Page 5

CANCER

DISCOVERY OF THE CAUSE

A BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENT.

CURE YET TO BE FOUND

jy cable—press association— copy kighi LONDON, July 14.

According to The Lancet tne conclusions of Dr. Gye, one of the scientists responsible for the cancer discovery, are: (1) All malignant new growths contain an ultra-microscopic virus, or group of viruses, whicn can be cultivated. This applies to the carcinomata and sarcomata of fowls, mice, rats, dogs and man. The virus probably- resides within the cells of neoplasms.

(2; The virus alone, washed free from all adherent material, does not produce a tumour when injected or even a visible lesion. (3) When injected together with the virus of free extracts of tumours, the virus produces a malignant new growth. The extracts therefore contain a substance which Dr. Gye calls a specific’ factor, enabling the virus to attack and transform the cells of the injected animal into cancer cells. (4) There are no species or specificity so far as the virus is concerned, because tumours can be obtained in one species of animals with the virus from a tumour of another species. (5) The specific factor shows very strict specificity of species. Thu 6to produce malignant new growths in a mouse it is necessary to use the specific factor from a mouse tumour, whereas the specific factor from a chicken tumour is ineffective.

(6) There is probably, also, strict specificity of tissue for the specific factor. Hitherto only' sarcomata had been obtained and only with a mixture virus and a specific factor from the sarcomata and nob-from the carcinomata. The Lancet says Dr. Gye’s experiments do not contain a suggestion for a cure, but point the way to further biochemical work, while strikingly reconciling much conflicting theory. Dr. Gye, in an interview, declared that he must not raise false hopes. The cure for cancer still remains to be found, but certain definite results have been obtained.

The achievement of Dr. Gye and Mr J. E. Barnard was made possible by Air Barnard’s invention of an ultramicroscope and ultra violet and G-ravs. A scientific writer says the process _is perhaps best described- as a special method of lighting a film of liquid under observation. The ultra-micro-scope enabled the scientists, with the help of rays, to photograph a virus which cannot be seen and is only made apparent on the film by the disturbance caused to a beam of light. The specimen is subjected to the most powerful possible magnification, and despite the facts that there is nothing visible it is photographed by rays. Professor TV. S. Lazarus-Barlow, M.D. (director of the cancer research laboratory at Middlesex Hospital) says: “If the * discovery' passes all tests it will he the greatest single achievement in cancer research. We can then proceed on the next step in the direction of discovering a cure.” . The Morning Post, says: “The'public must remember that the researches of Dr. Gve and Mr Barnard, though immensely valuable, are researches in the domain of pure science, and not therapy. It was already fairly certain that cancer could he attributed to no intrinsic specific cause. It is now discovered that there is a certain ultramicroscopic virus, whicli is a necessary factor in the causation of _ cancerous ancl allied growths, but which is capable of producing a new malignant growth only in conjunction with an already infected tissue. This does not carry us very far from the non-scien-tific viewpoint. Death itself may some day prove to be an ultra-microscopic virus capable of isolation by micronhotographv, but we shall not on that account jump to the conclusion that immortality is at hand.” BERLIN, July 15.

Professor Neusel, head of th© Roeh Institute, said that if the cancer claim is substantiated British medical science deserves to be congratulated on one of the most brilliant achievements ever made.