Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16
NEW CANCER CURE
REPORT AWAITED
U. S. Health Service Declines
Comment on Find of San
Francisco Physicians.
Cancer cures" come and go.

Cancer cures" come and go.
Inc United States Public Health
Service, with a thick file of alleged
cures, secret remedies, and repeated
| failures reported from all parts of the
country does not get excited over new
treatments. Too many hopes have
| been raised and dashed in the past
and the completely of the problem, as
understood by the experts, does not
Ieao 10 much optimism over the pros
poets OF suddenly discovered specific.
Numerous inquiries have been re-
ceived In the past few days as to the
| extract supposedly prepared from the
cortex OF the adrenAl gland of sheep
winch Is being used with reported good
results by DR.. William B. Coffey and
Or. John B. Humber at the Southern
Pacific Hospital in San Francisco. As
Soclated Press dispatches yesterday re-
ported hundreds of persons flocking to
! the hospital and lined up before its
doors waiting for an injection Of the
new remedy.
Have Not Made Report.
The answer is always that Coffey
and Humber have not yet made q
scientific report of their work and
| that the Public Health Service must
wait until this is done before any
opinion can be advanced as to the
value of the extract
The claim, as reported, Is that the
aorenaI gland extract diSsolves cancer
Gus tissue. Somewhat similar reports
were made last August before the meet
ing OF the World Physiological Cong
reSS at Harvard by DR.. Boris Sokoloff,
VINO had worked in q Columbia Uni
verSity clinic, but who was demonstrate
ing commercial preparation. It ap-
parently destroyed certain forms of
cancerous tissue in rats. The process Of
making the extract from the adrenal
gland cortex OF sheep was not revealed
at that time.
Whatever physiological theory NAV be
behind the supposed remedy is yery OBJ
scure, as Is the function of the adrenal
cortex itself. This gland, a small,
rather mysterious body, one of which. is
situated above each kidney, has two d..
visions, the cortex and the medulla.
From the medulla is prepared the DOW
erful drug adrenalin, which Is of SUI
preme value In stimulating heart action
But medical science has been vague
on the function of the cortex. It is
blamed, when in a diseased condition.
Tor such curiosities as bearded women
evidently having some control over the
secondary sex characteristic. ANY cor.
nection between these and cancer il
difficult to trace.
Receives Many Alleged Cures.
The Public Health Service Is con-
tinually receiving claims of alleged
cancer cures" usually from persons
who have very vague ideas as to the
nature Of cancer. Some are downright
quackS. Others report remedies which
nave been In the family for a long time
and WhichS have made cancers disap-
pear overnight. Usually they want to
sell the preparations. Seldom are they
willing to submit them TO a scientific
analysis and when they do 1t usually
Is found that they contain nothing not
already known.
1t is not difficult, it was explained at
the Public Health Service, to make an
external cancer disappear in q short
time. It can be done with various
arsenic or antimony pastes. But the
condition itself Is very seldom cured by
these remedies. The external signs may
disappear and the patient think he is
improving, but he dies all the same and
perhaps all the quicker. These pastes still
are used In some cases. They simply
eat out the cancerous growth, Just as
they would eat away any other tissue
with which they came in contact. There
are numerous variations of the mix
lures, but they all work the same way.
The scientific work of the Public
Health Service itself on cancer is not
at present directed at finding a cure,
but at finding the difference between
cancer and non-cancerouS cells from
which, 1t is hoped, q hint for treatment
eventually will come. Much Is yet to
be learned, 1t was explained, before
experimenters will be on firm ground
in working out q "cure," other than
the surgery and other methods Of elm
ination used at present.
This does not mean, it was pointed
out. that some day a purely empirical
cure will be discovered This would be
something that worked without the
reason being known. Such. from pub
lished reports. is the nature OF the
extract now being injected into the
cancerous tissue at the California hos
pital.
Bring Undesirable Results.
Similar cases of public excitement
over a cancer or tuberculosis cure have
occurred in the past, it is pointed out
at the Public Health Service, and have
brought very undesirable results. Per-
sons practically at the point Of death
have spent all they had to go long
distances for treatment and, this fall
ing, have become objects of public
charity In strange community during
their last hours. Desperate folks are
willing to try anything.
The San Francisco physicians, &C.
cording to dispatches, state frankly
that they do not know whether their
extract will cure or not, but that It
apparently has had some good results
long period of observation and
checking, 1t was explained, would be
necessary before any definite claims
could be made. Meantime continuous
efforts are being made in other labora-
tories to determine the nature of can
cerous cells, how they reproduce them
selves so much faster than other cells
and why.