Challenging the Apricot-Pit Gang

Few Senators have more reason to want a cure for cancer than Massachusetts' Edward Kennedy. In 1973 his son Teddy, now 15, had a leg amputated because of a bone malignancy. But last week, presiding over a crowded, acrimonious Senate subcommittee hearing on Laetrile, Kennedy showed little patience with supporters of the alleged anti-cancer drug. Facing four of Laetrile's leading advocates--three of whom have been convicted of conspiring to smuggle and distribute the apricot-pit extract into the U.S.--Kennedy asked each in turn whether he would "stop, halt and cease raising false hopes" if an objective test found Laetrile worthless. All four agreed. But before the session ended, it was clear that no Government-sponsored trial would appease Laetrile's fanatic supporters or settle the emotional furor over the drug.

Kennedy went so far as to promise that he would become Laetrile's biggest senatorial booster if a test showed that the substance was effective against cancer. But members of the self-styled apricot-pit gang remained hesitant. Said Robert Bradford, president of the right-wing Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy, Inc.: "Orthodox medicine is not qualified to evaluate Laetrile." For one thing, Bradford and his cronies objected to the Government's plan to limit any test to terminal cancer patients. The Laetrile advocates also demanded that the clinical test involve not just Laetrile but an individual dietary regimen for each patient.

Most doctors remain as skeptical as ever about Laetrile. Indeed, in still another refutation of claims about the substance, scientists at the Battelle Memorial Institute reported that new experiments with mice showed Laetrile offered no benefits whatsoever in the treatment of either breast or colon cancers transplanted from humans. Dr. Joseph Ross, a U.C.L.A. professor of medicine, also raised the "strong possibility" that long-term ingestion of Laetrile could result in chronic poisoning similar to that from the starchy cassava root, which, like Laetrile, contains cyanide.

The most outspoken critic was Food and Drug Administration Chief Donald Kennedy. Said he: "I do not believe that anyone has the right to debase the concept of freedom by swindling those who are desperate for their lives." Other federal officials testified that Bradford alone had pocketed $675,000 in profits from $1.4 million in Laetrile sales over 2 1/2 years.

The developer and chief promoter of Laetrile, Ernst Krebs Jr., fared no better than the rest of the Laetrile crew at the session. The only applause from the gallery came when Senator Kennedy wryly corrected Krebs, who had referred to the FDA commissioner as "Mr. Kennedy." Said the Senator (no kin): "He's Dr. Kennedy. You're Mr. Krebs." That was a pointed reminder to all the world that Krebs, who likes to call himself "doctor," has only an honorary Ph.D.

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