Eggs and/or Cancer

A retired Italian laborer with a bright red rash, recently treated in Boston City Hospital,* was a curious and fascinating case to many doctors -- especially cancer researchers. He was apparently the first clinical case of egg-white disease, an ailment previously produced only in laboratories by feeding experimental subjects an inordinate amount of raw egg white (or a chemical extracted from it, avidin).

The 66-year-old patient while still in his teens had learned to love a raw egg or two in a glass of wine, had lately lived on little else. His rate of consumption: one to four quarts of wine a day, two to six dozen eggs a week. To be certain of enough fresh eggs, he left his family a few years ago to start a chicken farm. The strange eczema-like rash, which had grown redder and flakier for five years, soon faded on hospital diet, but the patient was still sick with other ailments unconnected with egg white -- a urinary tract infection, chronic bronchitis, heart disease, cancer.

His cancer was particularly interesting because one of the hottest theories in cancer research is the possible effect of raw egg white on the cancers. Egg white's avidin links up with biotin, part of the vitamin B complex essential for growth of both normal and cancerous tissues. Theory is that large amounts of avidin might "freeze" enough blood biotin to starve a cancer, possibly stop its growth or dry it up.

The fantastic patient's condition ran contrary to this theory. Even when the hospital restored his egg and wine diet, in an effort to bring his rash into full flower again, his cancer progressed. One possible explanation: perhaps the bacteria of his urinary tract infection were making biotin, sending enough into his blood to cancel stupendous quantities of avidin and feed the cancer besides.

* The case was described by Dr. Robert H. Williams in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.