ANARCHIST CANCER . CELLS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1924, Page 4

ANARCHIST CANCER . CELLS.

POISON SHIELD FOB ATTACK

NEW -METHOD TO PItOD.UCE IMMUNITY. LONDON, September 5. Tho present position of cancer research is outlined in the “Edinburgh Review” in an article compiled by members of the staff of Middlesex Hospital and School alul edited liv Mr TV. Sampson Hadley. Explaining the disease, the article points out that the cancer cell is the supreme example of an anarchist. It has beepme an enemy to its neighbours in the human body. The extremely loose kuiting together of the rebels, their luck of cohesion and lawlessness of their behaviour have a terrible consequence. Many of them break away altogether from the parent colony and are carried by the ever-moving lluids and juices of the body to remote situations'where they settle themselves to begin over again the furious work of reproduction. Thus rebel colonies and sub-colonies soon exist in many parts of the body. This tendency is the distinguishing mark of cancer and the chief cause of its destructive influence. No surgeon can over be quite .mire that his knife has eradicated every one of tlie subsidiary or secondary deposits of the disease. Yet if one of those remains the work of ruin will proceed apace. Three quite definite circumstances may give rise to cancer—rays of short wave length (the gamma rays of radium and the X-ray), certain chemical substances (coal-tar, parafliin, arsenic), and finally an intestinal worm. Do they possess ally quality? Here, again is a staring point for research. It is known, for example, that while coal-tar possesses the cancer-producing power, that power is not possessed by blast-furnace tar. Meanwhile there exists a school of thought which looks on all cancer-producing substances as merely so many preparers or lertiliseis of the ground for the real seed of the disease—a germ. HUMAN “SOIL” P.BEBABED, A germ of cancer in this view exists, hut cannot become active until the human “ soil ” has been prepared lor

its reception. If cancer cells are given a lethal dose of radium rays and arc then injected into an animal, they eventually die and disappear. The body ol the animal often, though not invariably, develops what is called “ immunity ” to the particular type of cancer used. In other words, the presence ol the dying cancer cells calls lortli, on the putt of the body, a reaction which results in the preparation of a “ cancer antidote.” Animals so protected have remained immune for a year and the method is now being tried in cases ol human cancer. The body, therefore, can attack, and does attack, the rebel cell when Iho rebel is crippled or weakened by previous exposure to radium. Thus it appears to he probable that the cancer cell, in its full vigour, possesses some poison capable of paralysing the normal bodily attack oil it. Some recent investigations have indicated that this poison does in fact exist, and that it is the “shield” which enables cancer to develop in the first instance. The following striking passage is taken from the Middlesex Hospital report : The late Mr T. 11. Kcllock, surgeon In the hospital made a clinical trial ol this immunity method (that produced by injecting cancer cells which have previously received a lethal (lose ol radium) in cases which were otherwise hopeless. The method proved to be safe, and results, so far as they could lie judged emboldened Mr Kcllock to embark upon a similar line of treatment for less advanced cases. His death interrupted the work, which, however, is being applied by ether surgeon:, of the hospital in cases which, in their judgment, arc suitable lor it. In a few years it will lie possible from tho group of eases already operated upon to form a primn facie judgment as to the value of the method in human cancer, if the results are oncounging a trial of the method as a routine and upon a large scale in early cancer will naturally follow, and extensive radical operations will tail

into disuse. This work represents the very real progress which has been achieved during the last decade and should stilliee as an answer to those who declaim against the “failure” of medical

science to make any advantage in the field of cancer research. Beside it may set the investigations ol the Imperial Cancer Research I'Tind on tissue

culture in vitro. It has been found that, whereas healthy animal tissue will continue to grow indefinitely so long as it is provided with food and warmth, cancer tissue produces a poison which, being left in nutrient fluid destroys it. Research is proceeding, the hope being that it may be possible to use tliis cancer poison to destroy the growth in the living body; or, at least, to arouse the living body to stronger efforts on its own behalf. OPKRATR EARLY. In the present state of knowledge, it is a public duly to say quite eatergorically that those who advise against carlv operation are tendering dangerous advice. The hope of cure may he lost if delay is prolonged even a few months. Nor can much he said in favour of the view that cancer can lie prevented by diets, by courses of drugs, or by physicolhernpy. It may or may not lie true that primitive people escape this scourge to a much greater extent than do civilised peonies. Yet the fact remains that cancer is widely distributed in the animal world and is found even among tho fishes. To ascribe it to tea drinking or tho use of preserved foods or other' "modern ” habits is merely to guess. Broof of suelt statements is lacking; and without proof they are worthless.