CANCER RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 9

CANCER RESEARCH

HEARTENING BRITISH WORK. TWO IMPORTANT RESULTS. The annual report of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, edited by Mr. J, P. Lockhart-Mummery, is noteworthy for an account of the production of a serum which not only definitely cures engrafted cancer in mice, but prevents further grafts from causing the disease. This special anti-cancer substance has been separated by chemical process from the blood of sheep inoculated with cancer. Two out of five mice with spontaneous cancer were cured and three did not react. The reasons for this are now being explored. The serum is not at present suitable for the treatment of human cancer. Another important step is the discovery that tar contains special substances causing cancer. They are mixed with a large variety of irritating compounds. When separation is accomplished, definite knowledge will probably be obtained concerning the chemical and physical properties of the molecule producing cancer.

Although a final solution is not yet in sight, the report is able to record these two important steps, and adds: “We know more about cancer to-day than a year ago and our hope of ultimate victory is consequently more securely founded. More progress is now made in a year than was formerly made in a century and the rate of progress is always accelerating.” Work on the effect of the serum on mice was done by Dr. Thomas Lumsden at London Hospital, where the principal line of research concerns immunity. It was found possible to keep small fragments of living mouse cancers growing in glass vessels, fed with blood serum, side by side with fragments of normal living tissue similarly housed and fed. It was also found that the injection of human cancer, cells into sheep did not affect the latter, but produced an anticancer substance. When the blood serum of these inoculated sheep was applied to tho culture of mouse cancer cells it was found that the latter died in a few minutes, while the normal tissues were not affected. An anti-serum thus seemed to have been discovered which should cure or immunise the living subject.

It was found that if the anti-serum could be confined to the actual malignant growth this died and the ihouse recovered and could not bo infected with cancer. This procedure was possible with superficial growths, but it was found impossible to inject the anti-serum into the general circulation or tho other tissues of the mouse in sufficient strength to destroy tie growth without killing-the animal.

Dr. Lumsden during last year, acting on the suggestion of Sir Charles Martin, was able to separate the anti-dancer element from the other elements., in tl’ e anti-serum and produced a comparatively non-poisbnous substance as titrorig as the original anti-serum. It was with this substance that he cured and immunised mice suffering from artificially implanted and spontaneous cancer. These results had not previously been obtained. Although they have not yet been established as constant, they «at least. have ripened up horizons seemingly impossible a few years ago. Drs. Dickens and Simer, of Middlesex Hospital, are carrying out research on tho peculiar metabolism of cancer cells and have shown that a defective power to oxidise sugars is a regular characteristic of malignant growth tissue. At Westminster Hospital, in cancer of the tongue, many cases being surgically inoperable, the survival rate has been 11, IS and 26 per centum after five, four and three years respectively, as the result of radium treatment. The hospital authorities are of the opinion that radium, expertly used, has achieved in these cases more than any other therapeutic measure. Research at Sheffield under Professor Mellanby seems to have established that cancer is not due to a deficiency or an excess of vitamins in the diet. Research at Birmingham under Professor Haworth appears to have acquitted tobacco of any particular influence upon the occurrence of cancer.