Word: cancerous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nothing stirs medical attention-and controversy-as vigorously as a new treatment for cancer. The 15 years of Krebiozen controversy ended only last year. Now, in a strangely reminiscent case, the Government has asked the U.S. District Court in Cleveland to issue a permanent ban on the manufacture and interstate shipment of the latest invention against the dread disease, the "Rand cancer vaccine...
These drugs, of which the best-known are 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate, are given by mouth or injection to get them into the bloodstream for the treatment of deep-seated tumors. But while they kill cancer cells, they also damage many normal cells; the patient may suffer such severe side effects that their use is generally restricted to far-advanced, near-hopeless cases...
...Klein figured that with localized application he could keep the drugs out of the bloodstream and use them on skin cancers without any of the dangerous side effects. Cautiously, he injected minute doses between layers of the skin, or applied the drugs in ointments and creams. From the beginning, he got an encouraging and prompt response. Furthermore, a number of the drugs he was testing seemed to sensitize the patients' skin, particularly in the cancerous areas. Subsequent applications then caused a bright red, allergic-type reaction. As the dosage was repeated, the reaction got stronger, and selectively destroyed cancer...
Clue to Prevention. The inflammatory reaction after a sensitizing dose is so strong, Dr. Klein told the Medical Society of the State of New York, that it even shows up cancers too minute to be detected by other means. Thus it makes prevention possible by revealing places where precancerous cell changes have just begun. The basis for this effect is not yet understood, but it is being investigated at other cancer centers where the treatment is being tested...
...Klein offered two warnings. Doctors must not use the cancer-killing ointments until they are sure just what form of the disease they are dealing with. The ointments do no good against melanoma, for example, and their misuse could lead to fatal neglect of this highly malignant cancer. Nor should they be used on the patient with a single, isolated basal or squamous cell carcinoma, because these cases are treated more effectively, and more simply, by X rays or surgery...