Milford chronicle., 1962-06-08
DR.. Thelmu Dunn
Battles Cancer
BY JEAN SPRAIN WILSON
AP NeWsfeatures Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) DR.
William Dunn, physician here
believes that most of his older wo-
men patients would be m u b
healthier if they had more to oc-
cupy their minds.
He doesn't have to worry about
his 62-year-old wife, DR.. Thelma
Dunn.
The gray-haired, mite-sized lady
is head of cancer induction q
pathogenesis research at t h c
National Cancer Institute. So well
occupied is she that she is one OF
the foremost authorities on t h e
pathology of the mouse, key tool
in the study of cancer.
Early this year Dr. Dunn W S
one of a half dozen distaff govern
ment employees to be honored for
her achievements with the coveted
Federal Women's Award.
This diffident mother of h r e
grown youngsters not only agrees
with her husband on the subject of
feels they could be extremely use
full in cancer pathology laborator-
les.
There is limited type of work
that they can be trained to do very
WELL" she says, "And they develop
such a sense of satisfaction in do
ing it,
During the grandmotherly pa
biologists 20 years in directing
cancer studies she has b roug h t
many Maryland farm women with
no scientific background and little
education into her laboratories.
Long before the rest of her staff
arrives though DR.. Dunn slips on
her white jacket and squints into
microscopes at kaleidoscope colors
formed on the glass plates by the
treated tissues of a canoe erou S
mouse.
Although DR.. Dunn is primarily
interested in leukemia, other re-
searchers in the cubicles along the
formaldehyde-cented Railways are
concerned with other kinds a d
stages of cancer. And in other
parts of the world other research
ers are taking more paths in the
organized battle against the lethal
disease.
Several stories above DR.. Dunn's S
office in the tall, tan, brick build
ing are hundreds of Gagged wild
mice which have been carefully in
bred for years.
AS a result researchers can sue
cessfully transplant tumors from
dead mice to live ones, continuing
to study the characteristic and de-
velopments of the tumor while it
ages for more than so years. It's a
study impossible to perform on
man.
"More people are dying fro m
cancer than many years ago. But
isn't it because those infectious
diseases have been brought under
control? These used to cause death
before conditions within th e
person could develop into can
GERS" she suggests.
But the mice upstairs ar e
answering such questions for her.
"Oh, don't be alarmed at this, T"
the doctor says, suddenly of her
bandaged arm. ."My pressure cook
er burned my hand"
Each evening Dr. Dunn takes the
hours drive home from the labora-
tory to. whip up dinner for h e r
husband. On weekends the rule is
mo work" that is, no professional
work. Instead of her white coat,
DR.. Dunn wears an apron, gets the
shopping done, keeps the h o u e
sparkling, and does "a lot of leaf
raking, no serious gardening"
The only concession to her week
day job is some medical reading.
There is so much of this to keep
up with"
Born Thelma Brumfield, h e
went to Cornell, later to the Uni
versity of Virginia where she met
her husband in medical classes.
She received her medical degree
in 1926 and waited three years to
marry. Later, William, John a n
Mary Dunn rounded out the fam
lily.
DR.. Dunn volunteered her sser-
vices at George Washington Uni
versity, teaching, studying autopsy
slides, almost anything" she says,
ito keep a hand in things while
the children were young"