The Pittsburgh Press (September 22, 1946)
Victory could come tomorrow…
Medical science fights to conquer cancer in this generation
Surgery still frontline weapon against killer as researchers study atomic by-products
By Paul F. Ellis, United Press science writer
NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (UP) – Discovery of the cause, an effective control or even a cure for cancer could come today or tomorrow.
The main hope of medical scientists at the present time is to get a foot into the doorway. They believe that will lead them into a position from where they can find means to strike down the disease which antedates the Christian era.
The world’s best arsenal of scientific weapons against cancer is centered here in New York City at Memorial Hospital. It is the only institution where prevention, treatment, research and medical education against this killer is housed under one roof. If more such integrated centers were located through the United States and the world, medical scientists believe that the battle against cancer might be won in this generation – perhaps even earlier.
Surgery still main weapon
Surgery still is the frontline weapon against cancer with radium and X-ray finishing out the 1-2-3 order of effectiveness. However, early experiments with radioactive elements, particularly carbon and other by-products of the splitting of the uranium atom, have opened a new and intriguing field of research.
Despite the much-heralded claims about atomic fission in the war against cancer, there is no concrete evidence as yet that a “miracle weapon” has been found.
The so-called isotopes, radioactive by-products of the atom bomb factories, are just beginning to arrive in cancer hospitals and research laboratories.
Experts reserve opinion
Experts in cancer research and treatment at Memorial Center have reserved optimism on what these radioactive isotopes will do against cancer. In their conservative way, they say the primary purpose in using these natural radioactive elements in for the study of the properties of the cancer cell.
Some artificially-created isotopes, such as radioactive iodine and phosphorus, already have been used in treating certain types of cancer. Limited results were obtained in leukemia cancer and good results in polycythemia, a rare disease, but not cancer.
Radioactive iodine, however, is being used as a curative agent for an overactive thyroid gland, and in rare cases of thyroid cancer.
10,000 tests underway
It is hoped that the other 100-odd types of cancer may be susceptible to radioactive elements. In short, experts in cancer work have just begun to pry into the possibilities of using natural atomic energy in controlling the disease. The day may come when the isotope replaces present conventional methods of treatment, such as X-rays, radium and radon.
In one of many laboratories at Memorial, experts are swinging into action on a long range, painstaking, tedious program to test the products produced by more than 10,000 strains of bacteria, fungi and plants, in the first real postwar biological search for a cancer cell killer.
Experts here report that most all cancer cases can be halted, controlled or even cured if detected in time. A cancer that is not spreading too rapidly can be taken out by surgery and recovery usually is the case. Some can be treated effectively with X-ray, radium or radon, which is the radioactive gas formed by the emitting of energy rays from radium.
New types of X-rays are being used now – some with a million volts – and still more powerful X-rays are to come.