Evening star., 1932-04-07
NEW MEANS FOUND
TO TREAT CANCER
Announcement Made or Eye
of Specialists Departure
for Europe.
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. April 7.-Discovery Of
new method Of treating cancer where
1t Is most inSidiouS, in the lymph
nodes or internal ducts Of the body,
has been announced here
The announcement was made at a
dinner held as a curtain-raiser for
| closer cooperation between American
| and European cancer workers.
The dinner was given by the editorial
board Of the American Journal Of
cancer to Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood
OF Johns Hopkins University. interna-
tonally known cancer surgeon. It's
! purpose was to summarize American
accomplishments in cancer on the eve
OF his sailing for Europe on a tour to
| lecture to continental scientists on
American progress in this malady.
The lymph node discovery was de-
scribed by DR.. Leon J. MELVILLE of New
Orleans. X-ray expert. 1t was develop
ed with the aid of DR.. j. N. Awe Of
Tulane University.
Has Double Effect.
They found a method of injecting
thorium hypodermically so that for the
first time so far as they can learn the
lymph nodes become visible in X-rsys
1t worked so successfully on rats that
they now are applying it to human
beings.
Thorium is radioactive. In tha
lymph nodes this substance is expected
DR.. MELVILLE said, to have a double
effect. First there is its own radio
| activity, second is the added radiation
which thorium emitS when bombarded
with X-rays. Some. though not all,
types of cancer cells are sensitive to
X-rays and radium and can be de-
stroyed with these rays.
DR.. MELVILLE added that it is ex-
pected to use this X-ray discovery to
see actual cancer cells spreading into
the lymph nodes This. if it proves a
success, will be a great service to cancer
sufferers, because surgeons must often
guess at the lymph node spread and,
therefore. to be on the safe side do
extensive blind cutting.
DR.. Bloodgood was credited with saw
ing thousands of persons from mutila-
tion by his cancer discoveries. These
were described by DR. Dean Lewis, chief
surgeon of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
His leadership" said Dr. Lewis, "in
advocating conservative surgery rather
than amputation for benign tumorS OF
the breast, usually referred to by the
term chronic cystic maStitis, has spared
thousands Of women this mutilation.
He has saved an equal number Of arms
and legs from needless amputation by
clearly demonstrating the benign nature
of giant cell tumor of the bone, con-
sidered before his time as an exceeding
ly malignant disease"
DR. Lewis counted as one of Blood
goods greatest services his studies now
going on of $4,000 actual cancers re=-
moved from human beings and pre-
served at Johns Hopkins as the basis Of
invaluable information for relieving new
sufferers.
Dr. Francis Carter Wood, editor Of
the American Journal of Cancer, sum-
married. American accomplishments.
Technical skill of American surgeons.
he said is now generally acknowledged
as surprising that of any other country.
THE Mayo Clinic may be considered
as the center of surgical teaching for
the whcle world In the Standard
ization of hospitals Of records of follow
up systems We have taken the lead and
with the next decade important statis-
tics on cancer will be published.
Cites Many Leaders.
THE educational side of the Amer
ican Society for the Control CT Cancer
has been a model copied in Europe"
Dr. Wood credited Leo Loeb of George
Washington University, st. Louis, as
the first to show animal cancers are
transplantable. Maud Slye's work at
the University Of Chicago on suscepti-
bility of white mice; TyZzer and Little
of Boston in showing how to make a
sure, harmless diagnosis; Ross G. Har-
risen of Yale, who first showed how to
keep flesh alive outside the body, and
Carrell of Rockefeller Institute were
mentioned by name.
DR.. Wood credited Mr.. and Mrs. Gey
of Johns Hopkins with developing the
method of growing human cancer cells
in gass dishes. A special film of this
kind Ct work was shown and then given
to DR.. B!codgood for exhibition in
Europe