NEW YORK COMMITTEE

Irwin Donenfeld, Chairman

Max Abeloff
Edwin O. Anderson
Arnold Aronson
Irvin Arthur
David G. Baird
Bernard H. Baum
Miss Rosily Bazzini
Murray Bensilber
Arnold I. Biegen
Irving L. Braverman
Paul Caplin
Morris Citrin
Harold B. Cohen
Bernard G. Cohn
Alvin Cooperman
Francis McD. Culver
Jack Curtis
Norman Diamond, M.D.

Sidney Dreier
Abraham M. Druckman
Richard A. Eisner
Hilliard Elkins
Michael Ellis
Larry Ellman
Dan Enright
Edwin N. Epstein
H. Carlisle Estes
Arnold L. Fassler
Louis Feldsott
Ben Feit
Mrs. Philip Goldenstein
Sol Goldenthal
Rabbi Emanuel Green
Irving H. Greenfield
Leonard Hoffman
Bob Holiday

William F. Ioos
Sheppard Kerman
Bernard Korman
Norman I. Krasnov
Seymour Krasnov
Robert Lantz
Antonio Laskaris
George H. Levy
Richard Manfredi
George Mendoza
Frederick O'Neal
Myron Oppenheimer
David Oxenberg
Edward Ratner
Louis Resnick
Robert Riesner
Irving Rosenthal
Paul Safro

Harvey Satenstein
Al Schacht
Clifford E. Schaefer
Ralph M. Schwartz, M.D.
Walter S. Schwartz
Frank M. Serrani
Julius Singer
Sol O. Snyder
Albert J. Solomon
Julian J. Soubiran
Robert B. Sour
Andrew T. Terry
W. S. Todman
Norman B. Uris
Mort Weisinger
Dr. Martin M. Weitz
Sidney C. Winston
Seymour Wolf
Arthur Zelvin

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

William Alterman
Ben H. Antonoff, Treasurer
Albert E. Arent
Jack Arent
**David Aronow
Lawrence A. Atler
•Noah A. Atler, Vice President
M. J. Baum, Jr., President
J. Leonard Berman
Morris Binstock
Michel Bograd, M.D.
$Paul Caplin
Fred T. Davine
Louis Deutser
$Israel A. Diamond
$Irwin Donenfeld, Vice President
Judge Charles Dougherty
$Hilliard Elkins
Myron R. Emrich, Vice President
$New York, N.Y.

Maurice Epstein
$H. Carlisle Estes
Eugene Farkas
$Max W. Federbush
Judge Sherman G. Finesilver
Harvey Fischer
Irving Fischer
Morris Fishbein, M.D.**
Michael J. Fomusa
Samuel J. Frazin
•David W. Garlett
$Sol Goldenthal
Alex B. Gross
Stephen Groussman
Perry M. Harris
Irwin Horwitz
Patrick H. Hoy, Vice President
J. Collier Hurley
Samuel Jacobs
Adolph Kiesler*

Mrs. Max J. Kopman
$Arnold R. Krakower
Rabbi Manuel Laderman
Philip F. Lichtenstein, Vice President
Mrs. Philip F. Lichtenstein
Sam B. Margulis
Gerald N. Mellman
Mrs. Gerald N. Mellman
$William S. Miller
Johnny Mitchell
Joseph H. Morton, 1st Vice President
Albert C. Oxman, M.D.
Donald Peters
Leonard Pike
Marvin J. Pomeranz
Chief Justice Edward E. Pringle
Mrs. Louis Pulaski
Gerald M. Quiat
Simon Quiat

$Robert Riesner
Hyman H. Robinson*
Richard L. Robinson, Secretary
Marvin Rogoff
Dr. Albert H. Rosenthal
Mrs. Edwin N. Scully
Jack S. Shapiro
J. A. Sharoff, Vice President
Norbert L. Shere, M.D.
Mrs. Maurie L. Shore
Walter J. Simon
Morris Stein
Rabbi Earl S. Stone
John E. Streltzer, Vice President
Mrs. Herbert H. Vean, Vice President
$William B. Williams
• Charles C. Winocur
**Honorary Trustee for Life
*Emeritus Trustee
•Honorary Presidents

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my support of the work being done by the American Medical Center at Denver in the relentless fight against cancer.

"I know this work is made possible only by the dedicated effort of many individuals and I also want to express my personal thanks to them."

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

"It is of high importance to national health that the American Medical Center is completing these years of unremitting activity to drive out the scourge of disease. I know that you and your faithful co-workers will continue the work of the Hospital until the long fight ends in complete victory. Best wishes for your success."

HARRY S. TRUMAN

"Cancer hits every American family — one out of every four Americans may be hit with cancer before their life is through. It is a terrible disease, and I think all of us should enlist ourselves and our efforts and our funds into the fight against it."

"By contributing to the American Medical Center at Denver we train young men and women for the fight; we improve medical facilities; we share information around the world. This is a most useful and worthwhile cause. It should strike the hearts of all of us."

JOHN F. KENNEDY

"...By combining generous hospitalization with intensive work in the area of cancer research, this Institution is making a significant contribution to the health of mankind. Godspeed to all engaged in this humanitarian mission."

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

49

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS:

# The chemical fight against advanced cancer

By PATRICIA and RON DEUTSCH

WHEN THEY carried Ruth Delman into the *American Medical Center at Denver*, she was, though under sedation, stirring restlessly with pain. The inoperable cancer along her spine was growing steadily. And her legs and lower back were paralyzed. Fred Delman had at first not wanted her to go to the hospital. Both he and Ruth understood the time was short, and there was no cure. And Ruth would have to go alone to Denver while Fred stayed with their children in the Colorado farm town in which they lived.

Then, as the pain grew, the doctor said: "I think they can make her more comfortable there." Now Ruth was to benefit from a fight of which the American Medical Association reports: "In terms of man hours, effort, and money, nothing in the history of medicine compares with the search for chemical agents effective against cancer." Thousands of scientists are at work in this search. In the last decade over 220,000 compounds have been tested. Says an American Cancer Society spokesman: "From all this we now have perhaps two dozen anticancer medications. For thousands of victims these mean extra months and years of good life. Even if lives cannot be extended, there is often the abatement of suffering. And for some there seems to be the miracle of cure."

Why is a cancer cure so difficult to find? In part it is because cancer grows out of the body itself. Normal cells somehow give

birth to disordered cells that multiply rapidly. But these tumor cells retain most of the basic life processes of their normal ancestors. What will kill one will kill the other. "This is one reason," says a researcher, "it is so important to detect cancer early, while the abnormal cells are gathered together in one place. Then we can remove them in a mass with surgery or focus radiation upon them before they spread through the body."

But too often the initial tumor cannot be found quickly enough. A generation ago this tragic failure placed the victim beyond help. But today there is hope. In Ruth Delman's mind that hope was solely that the pain could be stopped to let her live the last weeks or months in comfort. Yet the *American Medical Center*, like some 350 other hospitals taking part in cancer chemotherapy (chemical treatment) programs, always begins with *greater* hope. Says Dr. Virginia Downing of the hospital's cancer division: "We never know what we can accomplish till we try."

RUTH WAS first given radiation to slow and weaken the tumor. And in a few weeks she was in a wheel chair, with much less pain. But the cancer would begin to grow again, and the amount of radiation anyone can take is limited. So the doctors began chemotherapy.

They injected methotrexate, or MTX, a drug of the type called an antimetabolite,

(over)

One -medroxy progesterone acetate - today the most effective treatment for advanced BREAST CANCER known - was perfected at American Medical Center.

# the chemical fight against advanced cancer

(Continued)

meaning it interferes with the life process of cells. Created in the laboratory, such a drug takes advantage of the key difference between normal and cancer cells. For cancer cells grow and reproduce much faster than do most normal cells.

In effect, MTX deceives the cancer. It is much like a body chemical the tumor cells ordinarily use. So they take it up. It is in fact a subtle poison. Normal cells are similarly fooled, but because they live at a much slower pace, they take up far less.

Even so, certain normal cells that grow and reproduce rapidly are seriously affected. Among them are those that line the intestines. Ruth developed intestinal sores and bad digestive disturbances. Her white blood cells were also killed by the many millions, leaving her prey to minor infections.

With round-the-clock care, Ruth was brought through the toxic effects. But the tumor was harder hit. At each X-ray examination, it was smaller. When Fred came to visit, Ruth met him on crutches, proudly walking.

The MTX treatment was stopped so it would not do great damage to her body, but Ruth continued to improve. After three months the hospital gave her a part-time job so she could leave the wards but remain in Denver as an out-patient. Six months later Fred took her home.

"That was three years ago," says Dr. Downing. "She still seems well. Cured? We cannot say. The cancer could recur. But certainly the fight has been worthwhile. For who can say how much life is due any of us?"

Does Ruth's case mean long reprieve for other patients like her? "Not necessarily," says Dr. Downing. "We could treat a similar case in the same way and achieve much less.

Why we can only guess. What matters is that we know surely that we should try," she says determinedly.

This variability in response is one reason chemotherapy researchers are reluctant to make public some of their victories. Yet some of the great progress made is suggested by the American Medical Center's record: Better than one in four of its "hopeless" patients leave the hospital, and some of them never need return for further help. But even those who do not leave are not thought of as failures — not if a day of life or of comfort can be given.

* * * *

HORMONES, TOO, can combat certain cancers without unusual danger to most patients, but usually hormones provide only temporary remission. In most cases they seem to work by suppressing some body chemical that aids the growth of the cancer. For example, in cancer of the prostate gland, among the commonest of men's tumors, doctors give female hormones when surgery cannot be done successfully or when it has failed. In 70% of cases the victims are helped this way. These hormone discoveries were developed by Dr. Charles Huggins and brought him a Nobel prize.

* * * *

Already there are many miracles of remission. The American Cancer Society reports that remission can be brought about in most forms of cancer some of the time and in very large percentages in many tumors. Many of these remission cases become five-year survivors. Five-year survival is a criterion for a cancer cure. "One day," says a Cancer Society official, "they may all be cures." *You help bring that day closer when you give to AMC.*

Dr. Huggins is a member of the National Scientific Advisory Board of the American Medical Center.

49

Frederick O'Neal

May 26, 1967

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 E. 127th St.
New York, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Last year, upon the completion of our successful "Judy Holliday Memorial Dinner," a Wing was established in her name at the American Medical Center At Denver. This dinner was a fitting tribute and one that will long be remembered.

It was a star-studded evening with many celebrities in the audience, and performers such as Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Benny Goodman, Alan King, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green on the stage.

Melvyn Douglas is this year's recipient of the Judy Holliday Memorial Award. The choice of Mr. Douglas, we feel, is in keeping with the prestige, dignity and integrity of Judy Holliday.

I know that you will not want to miss the chance to honor Melvyn Douglas while simultaneously maintaining the American Medical Center At Denver's ongoing programs in cancer research and free treatment.

I personally ask you to please take as many tickets as possible for June 18th, as well as an "Ad" in our Souvenir Journal. I am also taking the liberty of enclosing dinner ticket, souvenir journal blank and return envelope for your convenience.

With many thanks,

Frederick O'Neal, Co-Chairman
Judy Holliday Memorial Award Dinner

FON:as
Encls.:

P.S. All contributions are tax-deductible, of course.

108

Dinner and Reception
in honor of

Mr. Melvyn Douglas

Recipient of
Judy Holliday Memorial Award
for the benefit of

*American Medical Center At Denver*

Imperial Ballroom, Americana Hotel
SUNDAY EVENING, JUNE 18, 1967 at 6:30 P.M.

Dress Black-Tie

No solicitation of funds at Dinner

IRWIN DONENFELD
General Chairman

ARNOLD R. KRAKOWER
Honorary Chairman

SHARMAN DOUGLAS
FREDERICK O'NEAL
ROBERT B. SOUR
Dinner Co-Chairmen

ALVIN COOPERMAN
HILLARD ELKINS
WILLIAM B. WILLIAMS
Vice Chairmen

DINNER SUBSCRIPTION
$150
(Admits Two)

Please reserve ______ places for the MELVYN DOUGLAS Testimonial Dinner.

Name

Firm

Address