Evening star., 1938-01-10
Parran Rates Cancer Institute
Biggest Aduarce of the Year
Report Outlines Steps
Being Taken to End
Race Of Scourge.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


Yesterday in the annual report o1
Surgeon General Thomas Parran.
Establishment Of the Nationa,
Cancer Institute. which will form q
| nucleus OF cancer research in the
United States, DR.. Parran stressed ir
an interview on his report, must be
considered the outstanding develop.
| ment OF the year. 1t Is already func.
tioning, both through researches ol
the Public Health Service itself and
through grants to other research in
stitutions which are in prospect
With an annual appropriation oi
500. .0O0-the 1899 budget, however
prodives only 400,000-the institute
eventually will occupy a s750.0O0
building of its own at Bethesda, Md
At present the cancer research Is
being carried on at the National Insti-
tute OF Health here and special labora-
tories of the Public Health Service
at Harvard University.
DR.. Parran revealed that eventually
the whole National Institute of Health
the research branch of the service
will be moved to Bethesda and the new
buildings on the grounds of the Naval
Hospital turned over to the Navy
Already ground has been broken for
three buildings of the, Bethesda unit
Promising Lead Found.
This marks the first time, DR.. Par
ran said, that national government
has made large appropriation for the
conquest of single disease and the
American movement has focused at
tention throughout the world.
Scientific advance against cancer
remains a step-by-step process, most
Of the steps being in the dark.
One promising leat reported by the
surgeon general is the work DR.. Carl
Voegtlin Of the National Institute of
Health. 1t long has been known that
the absence OF certain amino acids
the simpler molecules out of which
proteins are made up-in the food
check growth. Growth is a process Of
cell division. So is the spread of a
cancer. A notable advance would be
made If some one Of these growth sub
stances could be found with a dif-
ferential effect. checking growth in
tunor tissue more than in normal
tissue.
Working with mice, Dr. Voegtlin
found that the two amino acids.
tryptophane and methionine, slowed
up tumor increases, but the results
were somewhat inconsistent. The net
result Of the studies to date is that
some cases of mouse cancer, but prob
ably not human cancer, may be ma
terially benefited by a diet low in
proteins. In mice it was found that
malignant growths could be slowed
up considerably If the chief source Of
protein in the diet was some form of
casein. the chief protein constituent
of milk and the principal material in
cheese.
Common Bacterium May Help.
Evidence that susceptibility to GER
tain forms Of malignant tumors in
mice may be transmitted through
mothers milk was obtained by Public
Health Service cancer workers in Bos-
ton. Newly born mice of families
highly resistant to cancer were placed
with foster mothers of q highly sus-
ceptible strain.
A notable field OF investigation was
the possibility that substances con-
tanned in smoke from industrial plants
might contain tarlike materials able
to produce cancers in the lungs An
other research is on the relationship
OF various normal body constituents,
such as the sterols and certain endo-
crime gland secretions, to tars which
are known to produce cancers. Lung
cancer is one form which is believed
to be on the increase.
The cancer Investigators found, DR..
Parran reports. that a filtrate from
a common bacterium which does not
cause any disease has considerable
effect in inhibiting the growth of
tumors. Another observation was that
tumor cells in solutions take in much
more water than do normal cells.
Period of Decline Ending.
The death rate for the country as q
whole went up for the year, DR.. Parran
reported-11.3 per 100000, as compared
with 10.8 last year The period Of a
constantly declining death rate prob
ably has come to an end, DR.. Parran
stressed in an interview. It was ap-
preaching the figure of 10 per loo, 900,
which would mean that everybody will
live to be a hundred.
The decline in the past has been
somewhat deceptive because SO much
OF 1t has been due to reduced infant
mortality. This went up last year
from 55.7 to 569 per 1000 live births.
Henceforth 1t may be expected to
fuctuate up and down. New lows
were reported for typhoid fever,
whooping cough. measles, diphtheria
and poliomyelitis, while the leading
causes OF death-cancer, heart disease,
pneumonia and brain hemorrhage-
continued their upward trend.
Further substantial reduction, DR.,
Parran stressed, must be expected from
cutting down the death rate Of adult
life. One of the most hopeful signs
during the year, he said, was a notabl
reduction in maternal mortality which
may well represent a permanent gain.
A New Menace.
During the year the country was
remarkably free Of violent epidemic
maladies. Smallpox remained rela-
lively stationary with 1920 cases and
only 80 deaths. It Is evident, DR..
Parran said, that the type of this
disease now found in the United
States is relatively mild compared
with that which has caused great
ravages in the past. A far more
virulent form. he said, may break out
at any time If there is let-up in the
campaign for universal vaccination
There were four cases Of plague, none
Of which were fatal. Disturbing,
however. was the discovery that syl-
vatic plague, which occurs in wild
rodents and Is a very close relative to
the dreaded bubonic plague in humans,
infectS mildly certain birds which