Biggest Advance For Many Years In War On Cancer

Chronicle (Levin), 25 March 1949, Page 5

Biggest Advance For Many Years In War On Cancer

Received Friday, 10.25 a.m. LQNDON, March 24. ^ A leadin^ article ih -the British Medlfcal Journal described as "the biggest advance lii* caficer( rfesehrch 1'or many years" theo.experiments carried ;0nt-byf the. Imp.prial Cancer Research ! Fund directors, Dr. Wv 'E. Gye/ anch his|colleagues. ] , E>r. Gye has been for many 'year ^ an apostle of the virus | theoi-y' of^c'cincer, .while •.m;o;st„'bf;! t'H"e f other research fields jhol-4 the vietv that the disease is rpainlylproduced by chemical lagents. . ; 6. In a paper published in the 'journal, Dr. Gye described lexpeTirnents in which he and his ctfileagues had rem.Qy,ed-14! , heifncaily-fostere'ci .tumor from a mouse and stvbjected it j )_ exlremes of heat and cold. All that could liave lived afttr the treatment would have been an ultra-fnieroscopic J virus. They then used the ma'terihl^ left to transmit tbe j disease to another mouse,' ' ; ; -f.ii* Dr. Gye concluded.: "The: exp.erirfiental evid'^hee -points to the conclusion that cancer has. a "cdntinuing^.cdllse/' 4 This, in mammals, as in birds, is a virus."' | imh ; The journal commented that'if t'his cah^be'^acCepted; then "it mdans that of. the current cancer nsituie : theories some 90 per cent. can be quietly relegated to the waste paper basket, leaving investigators free to concentrate on a much more iimited field through which certain paths are clearly indicated."