Science Holds Out Hope of Anti-Cancer Vaccine
Atlantic City – The chance discovery of a tumor-suffering monkey in the village of Yaba near the Nigerian capital of Lagos, may possibly lead to the development of an anti-cancer vaccine, three Buffalo scientists reported today. The work reported at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting here by Elmer T. Feltz, a thirty-three-year-old graduate student at Roswell Park, and his teachers Dr. Julian L. Ambrus, principal cancer research scientist, and Dr. James T. Grace, assistant director of the Institute lends support to the virus theory.
The three Buffalo researchers began their work two years ago after reading a report about the sick Nigerian monkey in the British magazine, “Nature.” Briefly, this is what they read: A group of British doctors in Nigeria found a monkey that had a tumor. They placed the monkey in an out-of-doors cage with several other monkeys — some native to Africa, others that had been imported from Asia. After a time, all of the monkeys developed tumors.
A piece of the original monkey’s tumor was sent to the British government’s National Research Council laboratories in London, where Dr. C. A. Andrews found that a large virus caused the tumor. The British, more interested in influenza research, reported their findings and did no work with the tumor.
The Roswell Park men sent for a piece of the tumor and repeated the work. At Buffalo, they found they could inoculate Asian monkeys with the virus and without exception, they would develop tumors. However, when they inoculated African monkeys, some developed tumors but others did not. The reason for the differing reactions, Dr. Ambrus said, could lie in the fact that the virus is native to Africa and that African monkeys have developed varying degrees of immunity to it.
At Buffalo the researchers housed monkeys with tumors in cages with healthy monkeys. They could not reproduce the epidemic that occurred in the Yaba cage. This, Dr. Ambrus said, could mean that blood-sucking insects — such as mosquitoes — are necessary to carry the disease from one animal to
another.
After working with the animals, Dr. Grace injected the virus into five volunteer patients who were dying of already-contracted cancer. About five days after inoculation, each of the patients developed a tumor the size of a half-dollar at the point where the virus had been injected. Dr. Grace removed some of the tumors and, after examining them under a microscope, found they were similar to those in the
monkeys.
Dr. Ambrus said the tumors could not be described as cancer. He said they were in a “gray area” between malignant tumors (cancer) and benign tumors (which are not cancerous). However, he said the possibility exists that the same virus, in a more virulent form, causes a skin cancer called Karposi’s Disease, which is common in tropical Africa among humans and monkeys and is found in rare cases in the United States, and “children’s lymphoma,” which has been raging in epidemic proportions in a belt from Northern Nigeria to Northern Kenya. [Burkitt's Lymphoma?]
Doctors in one African hospital have reported 106 cases of the children’s disease in the last few months. That disease affects the jawbone and abdomen of children between three and eight years old and kills within four to six months.
We need those of you who are great at forwarding on info with your email network. Please read and pass on. Peace and good health. It would be wonderful if 2000 were the year cure for breast cancer was found!!!! This is one note I’ll gladly pass on. The notion that we could raise $16 million by buying a book of stamps is powerful! As you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new “Fund the Cure” stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that kills and maims so many of our mothers, sisters, and friends.
According to the International Agency for Research in Cancer “…80-90 per cent of human cancer is determined environmentally and thus theoretically avoidable.” (5) Environmental causes of cancer include lifestyle factors such as smoking, a diet high in animal products and low in fresh fruit & vegetables, excessive exposure to sunlight, food additives, alcohol, workplace hazards, pollution, electromagnetic radiation, and even certain pharmaceutical drugs and medical procedures. But unfortunately, as expressed by medical historian Hans Ruesch, “Despite the general recognition that 85 per cent of all cancers is caused by environmental influences, less than 10 per cent of the (U.S.) National Cancer Institute budget is given to environmental causes. And despite the recognition that the majority of environmental causes are linked to nutrition, less than 1 per cent of the National Cancer Institute budget is devoted to nutrition studies. And even that small amount had to be forced on the Institute by a special amendment of the National Cancer Act in 1974.”
I am not posting to dispute your statement, but to request the source. The rates for smoking-caused cancer are below the adult smoking rate. The latest figures for smoking-related disease I have been given by my GP (without attribution) are as follows: 10% of smokers develop an acute affliction – lung cancer, stroke, cardiovascular problems – and die rather early. 20% develop a chronic affliction – emphysema, vascular problems, etc. – which affect life style and reduce longevity. When pressed about the other 70% he grudgingly conceded: “No visible ill effects.” The oft-repeated slogan “Every cigarette is doing you harm” has no scientific backing. It would seem that tobacco is like many other substances: a serious risk to some, not a problem for others. With millions of smokers in the Western world, you can always find plenty of examples of those who live to a ripe old age but that doesn’t excuse the fact that, on average, smokers die younger than non-smokers.
According to 1997 National Cancer Institute statistics, annual funding for breast cancer research is about $350 million. But annual funding for prostate cancer research is only about $60 million. Yet roughly equal numbers of men die annually from prostate cancer as women who die annually from breast cancer!
On July 16, 1998, the Postal Service published in the Federal Register a final rule (61 FR 38309) that established the standards in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) governing the use and determination of postage value of the Breast Cancer Research Semi-postal Stamp. The final rule took effect on July 29,
However, cancer research on animals does not benefit humans. It’s done so researchers can pretend they’re making progress by publishing boring articles (they only want to be famous.) Do we need to know that a rat will get cancer if it’s fed a ton of saccharin? Or if dogs will die if they are forced to inhale smoke all day? I think not. The PCRM Guide to Cruelty-Free Giving lists 9 cancer charities that do not fund animal experiments so why not support one of them instead of a charity that will use your money to torture animals who are expendable thanks to your generous donation?
