Tobacco Documents Online

Other factors in the lung cancer mystery continued to receive press attention. SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER , ~ ' San Francisco, California HedZC~[~ l~ ep®rt T 6 0 October 31, 19 . , " . , . . . . .. . - . ..._ . ~-.t: .~J._.. 'rne growing suspicion znaE n?,-Large numbers of what i used in humans in the termi- I Dr. Robert F_ Rvan of Tu- `7=: from the Roswell Park Memo- treatment' for syphilis and ing to stave off growing evi- 1sonous material. Now Dr. James T. Grace, the body of worms and as a The cigaret companies, try toxie effect of this highly poi- mors in mice. A drug formerly used to rid reported. proteetion agent against the cells - cause malignant tu- day's program: from other human organs, he nitrogen mustard served as a was strengthened here yes- under the electron micro- were indicated again as a pos- with colchicine - a useful terday in a number of reports scope. sible cause of lung cancer in ~rug in gout-produced a 20 presented before the annual 3-Presumed viruses froM a report delivered by Dr. per cent cancer cure rate in `meeting of the American Co1- both the induced mouse tu- Philip Cooper of the Bronx mice, compared with a 3 per lege of Surgeons. mors and from the human Veterans Administration Hos- cent'rate in those treated with . The best evidence so far is cancers will produce cancer pital• the nitrogen mustard alone. Included in studies showing I in newborn mice, not other- Smoke from cigaret tobacco Dr. Charles A. Ross of the that materials from human i wise susceptible to malignan• and from cigaret paper pro- Roswell Park Memorial Insti- cancers-whichlare judged to cies. duced severe toxic changes tute said he and his co-work- be viruses because they do. These other reports on can- when Injected into embryonic ers had shown that sodium not contain known cancer cer were highlights of the lung tissue and cells cultured thosulfate given previous to virnses are tne cause or some are believed to be viruses can nal stages of cancer. lane University said that' -;If not all-human cancer be seen in such mouse tumors Cigaretes - not smog - nitrogen mustard "primed" rial Institute, in Buffalo, has gout has proved in animals to dence of a definite link be• I Of six dogs so protected, shown that: i be significantly superior to tween smoking and lung can- all survived heavy nitrogen 1-Material f r o m normal ` n i t r o g e n mustard, widely cer, have been trying to shift ;mustard treatment; among organs in mice which origin- I used anti-cancer chemical• the blame to air pollutants. I Dr. Alan Davies of the Uni- Two different reports told ally received the presumed versitv of Illinois said he ha3 t,~m +ho sntt-n."nnr affnn#ivo-- human cancer viruses will in- tested the drug, a derivative' ness of nitrogen mustard - duce cancers in other mice, of piperazine, in rats and dogs which tends to destroy cancer and was now seeking a noii• cells at a faster rate than be- toxic dosage which might be nigII cells -is enhanced by other chemicals. _:: New Evidence -Is Offere. NEW YORK WORLD TELEGRAM & SUN New York, New York four not protected, t h r e e died and the fourth was very , In two terminal cancer pa- tients use of the protective drug prevented such side- effeets of nitrogen -mustard treatment as destruction of white blood cells and plate• llets (the part of the blood that initiates coagulation) a n d heavy vomitiag and nausea. Virus Mav Be cancer Cause October 22, 1960 Deener scientific familiarity with that versatile mousee virus, polyoma, Is throwing brighter lights on the pos- sibility of viruses being d major cause of cancers in people. The newest of the brighter lights shine on a principal objection to the -virus theory of human cancers. It's a fact that viruses cause cancers in fowl and laboratory animals; yet' If it's a fact for people, how come a virus connection has never been established for even one type of human clncer? And why aren't there more human cancers and why isn't cancer a transmissible disease? If you believe all viruses must behave more or less alike those questions are stoppers. The viruses we know about get around among us rather freely; the diseases they cause are transmissible. However, science believes nothing it can't prove. There are many viruses which await discovery, and science can't prove anything about their behavior or anything else about them as long as they are unkndwn. Now, to get back to that versatile mouse virus, poly oma. It was discovered a few years back at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md. Once it gets into a mouse It is almost ceptain to cause cancer. Even more startling, it causes not just one kind of cancer but many kinds. Since then samples of polyoma have been distributed among virologists throughout the world. Naturally, all those scientists long for a familigrity with a virus so . . ~. _ , .. : inking Cancer. Viruses ~ ~ versatile-and so deadly. These many studies have pro• •' duced a number of brighter lights. The newest came from a laboratory of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel. There, In culture dishes, Drs. Leo Sachs and Dan~ Medina established a stable relation between multiplying mouse cells and polyoma viruses. That Is, the viruses use the mouse cells to multiply themselves, in the viral cvay, but without destroying the cells. This has been going on for over a year now, with cells and viruses living together im apparent harmony. These viruses clearly are mutants of their killer-for• bears. Polyoma on its own took a form in which it makes mouse cells abnormal in that they can work with viruses and stilll save their lives. Drs. Sachs and Medina have now put the apparent harmlessness of these polyoma viruses to the acid test. - They took viruses from dishes and Injected them Into new bornmice of a strain highly susceptible to polyoma- so suseeptible, In fact, cancers appear quickly in 100 per• cent of these mice which are injected with wild polyoma. But the tamed polyoma produced cancer in only one mouse out of five-and they were the same kind of cancer. The scientists tried tamed polyoma in hamsters which are also 100' percent susceptible to wild polyoma. Even with heavy injections, only three of 31 animals developed cancer.