CAUSE OF CANCER.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 July 1925, Page 3

CAUSE OF CANCER.

——<i WORLD SHOULD SOON POSSESS CURE. HOW THE VIRUS WAS DISCLOSED. (Reccved Friday, 5.15 p.m.) ‘ LONDON, July. 17. The “Daily Telegraph” says; “To be sure of the cause of cancer is sooner or iater to bo sure of a cure. It will be realised a wide field of investigation has been opened. The connection of cancer with chronic irritation of the parts affected has long been suspected and irritants already regarded with suspicion will be tested afresh in the light of the new theory that ‘the virus by itself is non-pathogenic and requires an accessory substance to produce a specific disease.’ ” \ The , “Md-'ii ii!; F-'si.’’ snva y. o' deciding Lic'.o. is what Dr (Jye calls the extrinsic,, or chemical factor, which must be present in the cell before the virus can attack that cell. The “Daily Chronicle’s” scientific correspondent says: “Mr Barnard’s difficulty was to find a source of light of which wave length was sufficiently short to reveal the particles which ' are invisible, because it is shorter than' the wave length affecting the eye. Mr Barnard found the green line in the spectrum of mercury best suited his purpose. He uses quarts of mercury in a vapour, lamp as the source of illumination; When the particles are found with this life-lit. they are photographed with ultraviolet rays, which have a wave length half that of the green mercury light,' and therefore disclose details invisible by the latter. X'ltra-violet light is unable to pass glass, so. all the lenses are made of quartz.” The “Morning Post” says it follows that future efforts towards Hie prevention and cure of cancer must take a two-fold road. The aetiology'of the virus must be further examined. If il can be eliminated by destruction, or if means whereby it reaches the affected cell can be destroyed,, there can be no cancer." The other line of research must be directed towards the elimination of the intrinsic factor —the cells producing the chemical substance where with the virus associates itself. It is obvious in either direction ■ that an immense amount of ground has still to be covered before a cure can sight. tJUKUK FOR TRIO “LANCET.” ' TECHNICAL DETAILS OP DIS- ’ ; COVERT. v Received Friday, 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 16. I t was a new experience to-night to see a small queue awaiting the issue of the “Lancet.” in which papers by Dr. Gye and Mr. Barnard descriptive of their cancer experiments are published with photographs, taken with Mr. Barnard’s special apparatus. The “Lancet” devotes nine pages to Dr. Gye’s elaborate report, which is liberally illustrated by charts and tables. The whole report is couched in highly technical language, which is largely unsuitable for cabling. It shows that Dr. Gye began his actual tests in June, 1923. In his -conclusions, Dr. Gye shows two rat tumours, one mouse carcinoma and one carcinoma from the human Breast. All provided the factor which can replace the virus of. Peytonrous’s tumour in the gbnesis of the chicken sarcoma. Dr. Gye states that the common factor of ■ these four -tumours is certainly a virus. The production of tumours with remote subcultures remains to be done. Further, it has been shown that the virus alone is unable to bring out a malignant transformation of the cell. “An adjuvant, which I call the specific factor, is fortunately abundantly provided in chicken sarcoma. These researches led me to look upon cancer, using the term in its widest, senate as a specific disease caused by a virus, or group of viruses. The virus alone, under experimental conditions, is ineffective. The second specific factor obtained from tumour extracts, rupeures the cell defences and enables the virus to infect under natural conditions. Continued irritation of the* tissue sets up a state under which infection can occur. The connection between the specific factor of the tumour and an irritant remains to be investigated. Some of .the known relatively unimportant' irritants Include coal tar and paraffin oils. The virus probably lives and multiplies in the cell, provoking it to continued multiplication. The methods of our experiments and their obvious extension give a means of classifying the viruses, of investigating the nature of the specific factor and of testing suspected irritants, such as preservatives in foods, which may, play a role in the genesis of the tumour.” Dr. Gye and Barnard jointly contribute a note saying: “Our belief that the- small' bodies seen and photographed a~e virus depends partly upon the fact that control -of inoculated tubes of the medium have been invariably blank and partly upon the correspondence between bur microscopical findings and the results of experiments upon animals. This correspondence has been so close that although final proof has not been attained, we are convinced our conclusions are sound. By final proof, we ifieau the cultivation of virus from a single colony, or it possible from a single spheroid and the production of a tumour from the culture thus obtained. This work will be attempted when circumstances permit.” The “Lancet,” in a three and a-half page editorial, pays high tribute to Dr. Gye and Mr. Barnard. It also quotes Dr. Gyo’s six fundamental conclusions, and proceeds to say; “Even in the light of Dr. Gye’s work, the presence of a single organism by itself cannot account for the fundamental features of cancer. The position can be stated more generally that ancer cannot be explained by postulating an entirely ’ extrinsic origin. Why then, do we accept Dr. Gye’s observations as a solution of the central problem of cancer ?” The editorial traverses the history of research, pointing out the persistent contention that mouse and human cancer are quite, different. It draws attention to PeytonroUs’s experiments with fowls and mice and his retirement from the field of research, because he was baffled by the qustion why the virus reproduced the biological Individuality of each tumour. Dr. Gye’s work shows there are both an extrinsic and intrinsic factor concerned in the aetiology of cancer. His work offers a satisfying eolation