Evening star., 1940-10-17
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And. Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

Research projects in eight major fields
now are underway at the new National
Cancer Institute of the Public Health
Service at Bethesda.
Chemists, biologists and physicians
are seeking fundamental laws of cell
growth and multiplication and of the
autocracy of the body which ordinarily
holds the countless billions of cell citi-
zens in a cooperative unit. The OBJ
,jectives of the research are explained by
Drs. Carl Voegtlin and R. R. Spencer,
director and assistant director, in the
first issue of the institutes journal
Among the projects are several OF i'm
mediate practical significance. One of
these is search for factor in the milk
of certain highly inbred strains of mice
which is controlling factor in the Incl
dence of breast cancer among these
animals. Along another line is the syn
thesis and testing of chemicals related
to the steroids, compounds which occur
naturally in the body. None of these,
per Sc, causes cancer They are however,
closely related to substances which do
and there is a possibility that abnormal
chemical changes may take place in the
body itself
Still another field is the study, in as
sociation with the Carnegie Institution
of Washington and the United States
Bureau of Standards, of the action of
high energy radiations on various types
of animal tumors. This includes develop
ment Of methods to protect workers in
high-voltage X-ray laboratories and in
the neighborhood of cyclotrons from
serious injuries. One of the most signi-
ficant fields is that of the relative in
cidence of different types of cancer in
various parts of the country and among
occupational, racial and social groups.
But most fundamental problem of all,
says DR.. Voegtlin, is that Of the biology
of cancer cells.
Normal as well as cancer cells" he
says, "are by far the most complex ply
sical and chemical organizations known.
structure and especially of the chemistry
of these cells is very crude indeed
Nevertheless, progress is being made by
means of improved technical methods.
1--WE know, of course, that the prin-
cipal parts of cells are the nucleus and
the surrounding cytoplasm. For many
years investigators have tried to explain
no ha or rcti hol1o Of
cells on the assumption of an abnor-
mality of the minute components of the
cell nucleus, genes. Some support for
this assumption has come from expert
ments on hereditary factors.
But until We have conclusive evidence
it is better to leave this question open
and consider that either nucleus or
cytoplasm, or both, undergo a specific
change. The possibility that this change
may be connected with a specific change
of specific cell protein deserves serious
consideration in view Of the theoreti-
cally unlimited variability in protein
structure. This problem, which covers
an almost virgin field, now is being at
tackled.
"A vast field has recently been opened
up by the discovery of radioactive and
non-radioactive isotopes of the chemical
elements which will serve as an entirely
new approach to the study of the meta
bolism of cancer cells and its relation to
the metabolism of the body as a whole
By Incorporating these isotopes into the
molecular structure of natural organic
II
sugars, it will be feasble-to trace these
compounds and their conversion pro-
ducts in their course through the body.
BY this technique information will be
secured concerning the synthesiS of
organic constituents of cancer cells and
normal cells, data which will be of great
assistance for an understanding of
the characteristic growth of cancerous
tissues"
The present status of knowledge of the
problem is summarized by the directors:
1T has been found in nearly all man.
mails, and yet cancer arising in one
species can be transferred to an in
dividual of another species only with
extreme difficulty and under highly arti-
llCldl COllulllOllS. EFtI III VI
the same species, tranSplanted cancer
seldom will grow and develop. However,
when animals are inbred by brother
and-siSter mating for many generations,
and thus the genetic constitution OF the
individuals becomes identical like true
twins, then cancers arising in such
group of animals are readily transplant
able One sees, therefore, that while
cancer occurs among so many different
species any given cancer is, paradoxi-
cally, not only species specific, but in
dividually specific.
Factors contributing to the cauSation
of this abnormal process of cell growth
are now known to be multiple. Hence
the cancer process cannot be compared
to the infectious disease process that
has a single known causative agent.
Human cancer is definitely not COM
municable. Both clinical and expert
mental evidence point to the fact that
chronic irritation plays a part in the
causation of cancer. Numerous chemical
substances and many physical agents
heat, light, radium and X-rays-have
been proven repeatedly to initiate the
cancer process in experimental animals.
The exact mechanism of how these
agents act upon tissue cells, however, is