TEST FOR CANCER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23577, 13 August 1938, Page 21

TEST FOR CANCER

A diagnostic test for cancer, "which uses Congo red dye as an indicator for the presence of a malignant tumor, is announced by two English scientists, Dr C. Wetzler-Ligeti and Dr 8.. P. Wiesner, in a preliminary communication to the editor, of Nature. An extract of the blood which has been freed of all protein matter is injected into the person suspected of having a malignant tumor and is later tested with the Congo red dye. Successive tests tell whether the bood is being, regenerated.. A failure to regenerate blood is a common condition when malignant tumors are present. .

These scientists previously secured extracts from the pituitary gland, the master gland of the body, which is believed to regulate growth activities, and this gave the same indications as the blood extract. Cancer, in its general aspect, is characterised by a disorganisation of the growth function of individual cells. "All healthy subjects yielded extracts that rapidly increased the rate at which the dye disappeared from the blood. This rise in the Congo red index was followed, on cessation of the injections, by a return to the initial level. " The blood of patients exhibiting various clinical conditions (other than malignant disease) yielded either positive or inactive extracts. Entirely different results were obtained with extracts of blood from cases of malignant disease. Such extracts rapidly lowered the indexv . . No case of malignant disease so far examined has yielded positive extracts; no case of non-malignant disease so far examined has yielded negative. extracts. . The present status of the investigation does not permit the scientists to determine whether the tests indicate a causative factor of maligr nancy or merely detect a symptom. Cancer experts interviewed on the test are sceptical but open-minded and are awaiting a full report. One of them said that " this is one of the many diagnostic tests that have been' proposed. The ones we have investigated will indicate the presence of cancer when the tumour is so big that you can see it across the street. They will work in 80 per cent of the cases. But it is in the 20 per cent, of the cases where the tumour is small and perhaps hidden that they fall down on the job. It is in these latter cases that the successful indicator is needed." He expressed doubt that the present test could be made sensitive enough to work n the case of.small, hidden tumours.