CANCER AND RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 15

CANCER AND RESEARCH

WORK ON DR. GYE'S THEORY A NEW ZEALANDER’S LABOURS. DR. A. M. BEGG’S RESULTS. London, Nov. 27. At the annual meeting of the general committee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, over which the Duke of Bedford presided, Sir Humphrey Roll: ston, chairman of the executive comm tee, made special reference to the research work being carried on by Dr. A. M. Begg, of Dunedin, who is with Dr. G’ye at the latter’s laboratories, at Hampstead. Sir Humphrey Rolleston said that nothing was more striking than the way in which progress was characterised by a series of successive periods of great activity, with periods of relative quiescence between. Each period of activity was started by some salient discovery or fruitful conception, the working out of which engaged for a longer or shorter time the energies of those employed in that field. The first period was that following the discovery by Jensen and Borrel of the trans-plantability of the malignant growths of the mouse. Although there was a tendency for the achievements of that period to be overshadowed by more recent work, it should be recognised that the insight into/ the ■ properties of cancer cells which we owed to Jensen and his successors had given a precision to our conceptions of the cancer process as essentially a cell problem which dominated our attitude to all attempts to eludieate its causation to the present day. Tho work of the firsWperiod dealt with the cancer cell already fully developed, and the attempts at explanation based on it, of the etiology of the disease, were, in the nature of inferences, more or less happy. In the second period the interest shifted to the study of the conditions under which cancer arose in the individual primarily attacked. The work of Fiblger, Yarnsgiwa and Ichikawa, and Tsutsui gave the primary impetus to an enoimous amount of work, which still continued, on the actual production of cancer anew, starting with normal animals. The part played by chronic irritation in the causation of cancer, the relation of the duration and intensity of the irritation to the time necessary for the effects to bo produced, and the mutual reinforcement which different agencies gave to each other, had put a rational, sequential facies on many of the features of the natural history of cancer, which, till these investigations had been carried out, still appeared mysterious an<l capricious. Much remained to be done along these lines. Apart from the publication by Dr. W. Cramer of the accelerating influence of absorption of spleen tissue on tar-cancer production, this work was not yet ready for report. AGREEMENT NOT YET REACHED. If the interest and activity aroused, be taken as an indication, said Sir Humphrey, the work of Gye and Barnard on cancer causation by ultra-micro-scopic microbes published 18 months ago could be regarded as starting still a third period in Cancer research. A number of papers had appeared in Europe and America, and, as was to bo expected, agreement had not yet been reached. Both the facts and their interpretation were in dispute, and in these circumstances it was necessary to exercise patience and continue the investigations. Sir Humphrey went on to say that of the various lines of work bearing on the validity of the conception of Gye, at present in progress in their laboratories,, that of Dr. Begg was further advanced. Dr. Begg, whose' researches were provided for by the generous donation of Lord Atholstan, had worked with the Rous fowl sarcoma, and with another new growth of the domestic fowl, which, although differing in structure, behaved in the same way. His results confirmed the existence of two factors, as advanced by Dr. Gye, in the successful transmission of these tumours, and would shortly be published. The laborious, time consuming character of these researches could not be too strongly emphasised, and the public should realise the impossibility of a quick decision of the important problems involved.

The Duke of Bedford spoke of the loss they had sustained by the death of Sir Henry Morris, and their gratitude for the work he had done for the fund. If it had not been for Sir Henry it was very doubtful if the cancer research fund would ever have been started. In 1902 a friend went to Sir Henry and expressed a wish to give a substantial donation if Sir Henry Morris could see his way to starting systematic research into the cause of cancer. The latter consulted with some of his friends. They devised a scheme and made an appeal to the public. The appeal was successful, and an endowment was procured. Sir Henry, said the Duke, became the first treasurer of the fund, and during his term of office in that capacity, he established the finances on a satisfactory basis, but even so, they would always be anxious on the score of finance. At present they had a gift of £2060 a year from Lord Atholstan for a limited period, which was most valuable, but even with that and the income from endowments, they must always depend on donations and legacies for prosecuting their activities on a useful scale.

Dr. Gye stated subsequently: “Dr. Begg, described by Sir Humphrey Rolleston as being the most advanced of those following lines of work bearing on my conception, if a young New Zealander. He has been in England for some years, and has been working very hard. At present he is in Italy.” Dr. Gye says he is satisfied that the cancer agent is a living, filterable microbe, and that it is the cause of new growths.