CANCER RESEARCH.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 14, 30 December 1925, Page 6

CANCER RESEARCH.

AVORK OF A NEW ZEALANDER. RECENT EXPERIMENTS. London, Nov. 21. A New Zealander who is doing good work in cancer research in London is Dr A. M. Begg. Reference was made to him at a meeting of the Generaa Cjoinmittee of the Imperial Cancer Resea-rch Fund at which the Duke of Bedford (president) was in the chair. Sir Humphrey Bolleston, chairman of the Excutive Committee, mentioned that the work under the Atholstan Grant for research was being carried on with great diligence by Dr Begg, whose investigations on the Rous fowl sarcoma and the infective lymphosarcoma of the dog had inevitably taken on a new orientation since the publication of the work of Dr W. E. Gye, of the Medical Research Council. Dr Russell took a keen interest in this work, i and since his lamented death Dr Begg ' had had the advantage of close association with Dr Qye. This informal col laboration had been a source off great ' satisfaction to the executive committee. Dr Begg’s investigations were progressing satisfactorily, and it was hoped would soon be ready for publication. The important work of Dr AV. E’. Gye and Mr Barnard, in addition to | the many new lines of inquiry it open- I cd up, called for the most careful repetition with as many different kinds j of tumours as possible. This was now ' occupying much of the time and energy ' of the scientific staff. Sir Humprey Rollestion, in moving I the adoption of the committee’s report, 1 commented on the various published papers which had been issued from the } laboratory. These were that of Dr. i AV. Cramer on the influence of inner- ■ vation on the experimental production of skin cancer by tar, and a paper by Dr G. M. Findlay oh the production of cancer by a single application of tar. Dr Cramer deprived a skin area in a number of mice of the nerve supply ana ; then painted it twice weekly until can- ' cor supervened. This only occurred i after a longer course of tarring than was necessary in normal animals, and therefore absence of nerve supply certainly did nor predispose to the genesis of cancer as had been suggested. The nerves grow in again into the denervated area, so that the experiment did not give an absolute answer to the question whether, if renewal of the nerve, supply could be prevented, cancer would not be produced at all. TAR BURNS. Dr. Findlay’s experiments were devised to determine if it were possible to reproduce in animals the remarkable | sequence reported in the human subject from time to time, in which an accidental tar burn had been followed I niter a .short interval by the appear- i nnce of typical progressive carcinoma [ nt the point of injury. For this pur- i pose a large number of mice received | n single application of hot tar on a small area of the back. A slight swelling and reddening of the skin followed, but soon subsided. It was not till the lapse of a year that any further change was observed, and then three mice showed typical cancer of the skin in the site of the application. This experimental result was important in that it showed that general intoxication with tar. which had been invoked by many workers as an important factor in the causation of tar cancer, was, to say the least, not essenial. Dr. Findlay was also continuing his research into the action of manganese salts, especially as regards the more delayed effects, but had not published any further report in the year under review.