The Massive Hunt for a Cancer Cure
A fantastic detective story is being enacted all
over America.
A small army of investigators is testing tens of
thousands of chemicals and other materials in a
search to find drugs that can stop or cure cancer.
This gigantic hunt is being conducted with little
public fanfare. But in many ways, it is one of the
most remarkable searches ever undertaken.
This program can and we hope will find a
solution to the disease that takes nearly 260,000
American lines each year. It also could produce a
wealth of new information of extraordinary value
to medical science.
Nerve center of this project is an unimposing
building in Silver Spring, Md. From here, a scientist-physician
team is directing the screening of
about 50,000 different chemical compounds a year
to find those that may be effective against cancer.
This is the Cancer Chemotherapy National Serv
ice Center. It is sponsored jointly by the National
Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration,
Veterans Administration, Atomic Energy Com
mission, and two nonfederal agencies: the Ameri
can Cancer Society and the Damon Runyon Fund.
It is spending about $25 million provided annually
by Congress.
The Service Center was established in April,
1955, and given the job of organizing, directing, and
co-ordinating a stepped-up search for cancer drugs.
No one is sure that such a program will lead to
the development of drugs to cure the dread disease.
It is a calculated risk but one we have to take.
What is the progress to date in this vast hunt?
Right now, we have 109 different chemicals
tliat show some important signs of being effective
against cancer in animals. These arc now being
tested on human patients, some with promising
early results.
Within the past few months, for example, sci
entists working in the chemotherapy program have
reported that a new hormone-like drug, 2M-DHPT,
used to treat certain breast-cancer patients, seems
to be better than a related drug used for years. In
a limited study, four times as many patients re
sponded favorably to the new drug than to the old.
Furthermore, the drug's anticancer effect seems to
be accompanied only slightly by undesirable mas
culinization, a frequent side effect of hormone
treatment for cancer.
Another promising anticancer drug, called cyclo
phosphamide, recently was made available to
physicians all over the country. It was originally
developed in West Germany and tested in our
program. Although cyclophosphamide has been in
use only a comparatively brief time, it looks now
By STUART M. SESSOMS, M.D.
Chief, Cancer Chemotherapy National Center
as told to Lester David
7
Scientist-detectives are trying to
track down a chemical which will
halt this killer it's a needle-in-the-haystack
search that could
save 260,000 Americans a year
as though it might prove to be one of the best
anticancer drugs.
These are by no means all. We now have other
medications, some developed before the pro
gram began and others after, that not only afford
tremendous relief to pain- racked patients but
also add months, sometimes comfortable and use
ful years, to the life span. A decade ago, for ex
ample, the average patient with acute leukemia
could expect to live only a few weeks or months
at most after his disease was diagnosed.
Today, by use of drugs, the average survival is
more than a year.
Recent research also has shown that viruses are
a frequent cause of cancer in animals, and sci
entists are now intensively studying their possible
role in human cancer. Research on the virus theory
is now emerging as one of the most promising
lines of investigation on cancer causation. There
certainly is reason to hope that these studies might
p i.t the way to radically new methods of control
ling cancer by immunization, drug treatment, or
a combination of both.
But let me describe further details of the mam
moth search in the field of drugs.
First, why was it started? Two reasons: 1. Many
patients with advanced cancer or with leukemia
could not be treated effectively by the available
methods. 2. A number of powerful anticancer drugs
had already been developed that temporarily
curbed leukemia and other forms of malignant
disease in some patients.
The plan was to capitalize on the knowledge at
hand, gather new information, and come up with
better anticancer drugs.
As it now stands, the search is a massive coop
erative venture that cuts across many scientific
and industrial lines. Enlisted are dozens of private
drug, chemical, and allied firms; scores of hospitals
and research centers; and many hundreds of indi
vidual investigators. All are pooling their efforts
in the drive.
AT headquarters, drugs are received many
supplied free by their manufacturers tabu
lated, and then distributed to the testing centers.
A center may be a Government institution, private
research organization, a college or university lab
oratory. Each chemical is screened in an elaborate,
carefully worked-out program that has these three
main stages:
Sfage One, called primary screening, takes five
months to complete and is performed on cancer
bearing laboratory animals. If a drug exhibits a
degree of promise, it moves along to Stage Two,
further animal studies which involve up to four
dozen separate tests and take six months more.
Finally comes Stage Three, or the clinical trial
stage, tests on human patients.
So far, no drug by itself has cured a human
cancer. But we believe there is light upon the
horizon. The day could come when a doctor will
be able to reach for his prescription pad and order
a drug to cure this dread disease.
' The big search now going on may speed the
coming of this day.
tt utiti mil Tk i
COVER:
Handsome, dynamic William Holden is one
oj Hollywood's most complex stars, as
you'll learn in the fascinating protie,
"The Many Worlds of Bill Holden," p. 8.
LEONARD $. DAVIDOW f'rrnrfriif and VMinher
WAITER C. DREYFUS Vice l-neidrnl
PATRICK E. O'ROURKE Ainrtitinn IHreelor
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