Evening star., 1952-03-16
First Of q Series.


First Of Series.
Instead. it preys upon its useful
neighbors. It steals the food meant
for useful cells.
It destroys the barriers the body
has set up against its expansion.
And it invades tissues, killing as
it advances.
Rides in Blood Stream.
It works its way through the
walls of lymphatic channels and
blood vessels and is carried by the
blood stream to far parts Of the
body.
It finally commits suicide by
destroying its host.
Throughout the world, thou
sands of scientists are trying to
find out the differences between
normal and cancerous cells. They
want to know what sets it on its
rampage through the body. why
the body does not control it as it
does other disease causing cells.
They want to know what differ
ences exist between normal and
cancerouS cells.
The answers are trickling in to
the American Cancer Society,
which supports reasearch by some
900 scientists in IS States and the
District of Columbia.
Cell Protein Is Lost.
At the University Of Wisconsin,
they have found that some can
cer-causing chemicals that lodge
in the cell are promptly bound up
with some Of the cells protein.
Then the protein and the chemical
are carried out Of the cell and
out of the system. Cell protein
Is lost in the process.
At Rutgers, they have produced
some evidence to indicate that the
sacrificed protein is nucleoprotein
of the type which forms genes.
There are 10000 to 10000 genes
in each cell and each Of them
controls some chemical or physi-
cal characteristic of the cell. 1T
may be that loss or change OF
specific genes brings about cancer.
Genes control and may produce
engines. the compounds which
make possible every chemical re-
action which goes on in the cells.
At Washington University in st.
Louis and elsewhere, scientists
have found that cancer cells have
fewer of some engines and more
of others than do normal cells.
And they have found a new and
peculiar kind Of protein in cancer
cells.
Chemical Processes Traced.
At the Institute for Cancer
Research in Philadelphia. they
have traced the chemical proc
esses by which cancer and normal
cells produce substance and en-
ergy, and they have found them
the same.
In widely separated schools they
are finding that diet has an
enormous influence on the de-
velopment of tumors in animals.
They have observed that fat and
well-fed animals generally devel-
op more tumors than do skinny.
semistarved ones. Fat people have
more cancer than skinny ones.
The vitamin B, folio acid. which
helps prevent liver cancer in rats,
has no effect at all on other can
GERS in rats, rabbits or mice.
Scientists have found hormonal
imbalances-too much or too little
production of one: or more hor-
mones-associated with every ex-
perimental tumor they've exam
ined. But here, too, the pattern
seldom is the same for different
types of cancer,
Virus in Breast Cancer.
At Minnesota, scientists have
found that a virus is needed for
mouse breast cancer, but even the
virus is ineffective unless the
mouse comes from a susceptible
strain and is stimulated hormon-
ally, either by mating or injections
of the female hormone.
And at Yale and few other
universities, evidence of viruses in
tuners has been produced for a
half-dozeh animal cancers.
The answers to scientists early
questions are coming. But the an
swers themselves give rise to new
questions.
These are just a few Of the ap-
proaches to the cancer problem.
Under such battering, the ugly
features of the cancer cell are be-
ginning to come into focus.
Tomorrow; The Causes Of cancerJ