In 10 or 15 Years, Maybe

Cancer is civilized man's most dreaded disease.* Last week most of the world's leaders in the fight against cancer met in St. Louis to consider how the battle is going. The 800 delegates (from 44 nations) were optimistic.

Statistically, the odds against optimism seemed hideously large. In the past decade, cancer deaths reported in the U.S. (180,000 a year) have jumped 25% (due in part to better diagnosis and a longer average life span). The delegates at St. Louis were well aware that, unless a cure is found soon, one out of eight Americans now living will die of cancer.

But there were a few solid gains to report. Laboratory researchers have several new clues to cancer's causes and possible cure. President Truman's announcement of the release of radioactive isotopes to foreign scientists for research (TIME, Sept. 8) was cheered by all. Spurred by the announcement, the delegates voted to set up an international research agency to fight the common enemy.

Summing up the reports, the congress president, Dr. Edmund V. Cowdry of Washington University, said: "Slowly we are closing in on the culprit, cancer." Some hopeful researchers predicted that a cure (or cures) may be found within the next 10 to 15 years.

Cancer's Causes? Investigators are beginning to learn some basic facts about how cancer cells differ from normal ones. In cancer, normal cells suddenly turn aggressive and invade normal tissues like voracious animals. Cancer experts know that cancers can be induced by certain chemicals, by hormones, by X rays, by nuclear radiation, by metal dusts, tobacco, or even the sun's ultraviolet rays.

But what makes a normal cell malignant? Most researchers think the answer will be found in cell metabolism. A malignant cell, some now think, may be just a normal cell with a peculiar digestion. Exploring one phase of this theory, a team of Harvard and M.I.T. scientists used radioactive zinc to study malignant leukemia, an incurable, cancerlike disease of the white blood cells. They found that malignant white cells have much less zinc than normal cells.

Their conclusion: lack of zinc (necessary for normal cell growth) probably accounts for some of the abnormal behavior of cells in leukemia. Their discovery may eventually rank in importance with the finding that pernicious anemia is caused in part by an iron deficiency in red blood cells, which can be corrected by liver extract. Perhaps a cure for leukemia may be found in some substance not yet discovered that will enable white cells to absorb more zinc.

The congress heard some well-documented new evidence that cancers are often caused by disturbances of the body's balance of hormones--and can sometimes be stopped by hormone treatments. Most exciting new finding (reported by a Chilean group headed by Dr. Alexander Lipschutz): a slight change in the chemical composition of a cancer-causing hormone may produce a cancer-killing substance.

Cancer Cures? On the cancer-treatment front, the biggest news was a new anti-cancer vitamin discovered by Dr. Richard Lewisohn of Manhattan's Mt. Sinai Hospital. The vitamin: a special variety of folic acid. The substance has a powerful effect on breast cancers in mice, and Dr. Lewisohn reported spectacular recovery in one recently treated cancer patient. Unlike most other chemical tries, Lewisohn's modified folic acid is not poisonous to the patient. But Lewisohn sternly cautioned that it is still too early to tell whether his treatment is a cure.

The Russian anti-cancer hope known as KR--from the initials of its discoverers, Nina Klyueva and Grigori Roskin (TIME, Dec. 30, et ante)--has had little trial in the U.S. Two American scientists who have tested it reported conflicting results last week. KR is an extract made from trypanosomes (a species of blood parasite) which apparently have the power to dissolve cancer cells. Dr. Theodore S. Hauschka of Philadelphia's Lankenau Hospital reported that in tests on 1,200 mice, KR proved largely ineffective against tumors and was pretty hard on the mice.

Using a different strain of trypanosomes and a different method of preparing the extract, Dr. William M. Malisoff of Manhattan's Longevity Research Foundation got better results. He reported that 55% of the cancerous mice he treated with KR were cured, and that his KR preparation was not toxic. Next month Malisoff and colleagues will begin the first U.S. human tests of KR.

Although the "wonder" drugs penicillin and streptomycin have failed against cancer, other antibiotics produced by the same molds now look promising. Dr. Charles C. Stock of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research reported that substances made by these molds and by aspergilli molds discourage tumors in the test tube and in mice.

*Latest evidence: according to Gallup pollsters, six out of ten Americans fear cancer more than any other disease.

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