CANCER RESEARCH.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15353, 29 September 1923, Page 6

CANCER RESEARCH.

ON TRACK OF CURE. A small and devoted group of specialist investigators at one of the famous English Universities has made a prodigious advance in the past few weeks toward the'discovery of a pure for cancer (writes a London correspondent). The investigators believe they are on the brink of a final and definite success.

The entire medical profession Is sworn to secrecy about these experiments, as a premature disclosure of the processes is considered as possibly damaging to early and successful results. They point out that this happened in the case of Professor Dreyer, who divulged the process of his tuberculosis cure only when the Oxford Universities authorities discovered that American researches closely following Dreyer’s processes were likely to anticipate his announcement.

The special representative of the Sydney Sun understands that a clue to the new cancer discoveries will be revealed after the Investigators have concluded a long scries of experiments, notably in the inter-breeding cf families of rats, some of which have been inoculated with cancer from human beings and others left immune.

The first step was to discover what cancer really is. It Is believed that this is now known, and the clue is being ceaselessly and rigorously followed, with increasing indications of success. The scientists, however, do not wish to raise sufferers’ hopes prematurely, and so they arc maintaining the strictest silence pending the moment when they will be able to proclaim a certain cure. A leading specialist participating in the experiments >says: "I expect that within five years the sting will be absolutely removed from the terrors of cancer. I may say that the only difficulty at present facing us is our inability to experiment on the human frame. This prevents earlier and more definite conclusions.” Asked whether the experimenters intended pressing the Home Office to cdopt Dr. King’s suggestion to give murderers under sentence of death the alternative of offering themselves for cancer experiments, the specialist replied, "No, but we may have to call for volunteers."