Tobacco Documents Online

News Reports and Comment The Tobacco Institute. Inc. Vi ashington 6, D.(:. EXPERIMENTS REPORTED 'Piggy-Back' Viruses Held Possible Cancer Cause By ALTON BLAKESLEE They wondered whether NEW YORK -L4?i- Piggy- farden-variety viruses might back viruses possibly are a n t r o d u c e cancer agents, cause of cancer, medical re, somewhat like a mosquito searchers said today. bite can transmit malaria. These viruses would pick They first injected mice up and carry tiny amounts ai with moderate doses of a cancer-causing chemicals in polio virus, or a virus used to piggy-back fashion. When the vaccinate against smallpox, or invaded living cells, two viruses w?~ich cause they could seed the cells with grippe-like diseases, the chemicals to trigger off These injections didn't cancerous growths. produce significant illness. Mouse experiments provide Nothing much happened, some evidence for the virus- either, when mice were given cancer link, and perhaps the small doses of two •cancer- same thing happens in causing chemicals. humans, the researchers told But when mice were infect- the American Medical Assn. ed both with one of the The experiments were made by Drs. Christopher Martin and Sigmunder Magnusson and two medical students, Philip J. Goscienski and Gerald F. Hansen, of Seton Hall College of Medicine, Jersey City, N. J. ALBANY TIMES-UNION Albany, New York July 4, 1961 If mice were. first immu- nized against~ smallpox, and then injected with the- virus plus cancer agent, few of the mice got cancers, compared with those not vaccinated. In test-tube experiments using radioactive, traceable carbon atoms, the team found that viruses can pick up and hold tiny amounts of cancer- causing chemicals. T h e s e viruses still are able then to infect living cells, Martin said. Mice and men are far apart. If-and only if-the find- ings apply to man, it might be possible to protect humans s tng them a ainst i ~ viruses and one of the cancer ~rh$teyer s ents, the mice develo 3'pes of viruses g ped a might be doing the piggy-back variety of cancers. Sdme got sabotage. leukemids or btood cancers, The studies are an exten- some cancers of the lymph sion of earlier virus s'tudies glands, others of connective by such scientists as Drs. Pey- tissues. ton Rous and W. J. Friede- MEDICOLUMN By JOHN MAGUIRE Times-Union Staff Writer Lung Cancer Rate Declines In considering trends in death rates, they say, the rate at which a disease is rising or declining is as im- portant as the increase or Lung cancer may be show- decrease in the actual rate. in; signs of slackening off as a cause of death, three National Cancer Institute scientists suggest cautiously in a paper in the May-June _issue of "Cancer." The researchers say that while lung cancer deaths are still increasing, there has been a steady decline In the rate of increase in this coun- try since 1930 Although they note there are "many unknowns," the scientists say continuation of the observed trend could mean lung cancer will reach a peak among the white male population "in the foresee- able future, and then start to decline." But this is speculative at present, they add. BINGHAMTON PRESS Binghamton, New York April 6, 1961 Specialist Doubts. Cigarets Cause Cancer of Lung Pittsburgb-tJPt•--The theory that cigarets cause lung cancer "just doesn't make sense," claims a throat and lung specialist from Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital. Dr. Joseph A. Perrone, Mercy's chief of otolaryngology and bronchoscopy, made the state- ment yesterday in an address to the hospital's fourth annual clin- ical-pathological conference. "If cigaret smoking causes can- cer; " he said, "we should be hav- ing more cancer of the tongue, larynx, back of the nose and the throat because they get the hot- test impact of the tars and nico- tine drawn in with the smoke." He added that physicians, al- though xreat smokers, very sel- dom gct lurg cancer. August 1961 TUCSON CITIZEN Tucson, Arizona June 29, 1961 wald at the Rockefeller Insti- tute, New York, and Dr. and Mrs. Francisco Duran-Reynals at Yale University. Another Dr. Martin, Dr. Daniel S. Martin of Miami, Fla., described studies sug- gesting that anti-cancer drugs might be made more potent by stimulating natural immunity to cancer. He operated on mice to re- move their spontaneous breast cancers. Then he gave them anti-cancer drugs and rymo- san, a chemical which stimu- lates immunity mechanisms of the body. The combined treatment "produced striking 'cure' rates in the range of 70 to 80 per cent," said Martin. NEWARK NEWS Newark, New Jersey Mey 1, 1961 Cancer Clue In Smog, Flu USC Profeesor Tells Results of Study Made on Mice LOS ANGELES (AP)-Flu and smog apparently are among fac- tors that can help cause lung cancer, a UnNersity of Southern California professor says. Dr. Dean V. Wiseley, assistant professor of pathology, reported Saturday on a 29-month test of 1,600 laboratory mice. The mice were divided Into four groups. One group was injected with three viruses that cause in- fluenza in humans. Half the mice which had the flu breathed smoggy air, half pure air. The mice not subjected to flu were similarly divided. Wiseley said 38 lesions have been found in lung tissues of mice subjected to both flu and smog, compared with 14 for mice exposed to flu alone. No lesions have been found among mice who breathed smoggy air only or those without flu who breathed pure air.