resentatj >-E,Zac| ed THE BATTALION Page 13 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1979 Cancer research continues . . . ditionsi fl Timary Irug tests promising United Press International EITE YORK — For the first ' ae, chemotherapy alone has been id to cure a case of large cell lung • present | er says a report in this Friday’s ,er ' I of the Journal of the American ISC,Gin dical Association. he report says the drug lomus- ntine'sFf e was success L 1 Hy used to treat n G Knj p ceh l un g cancer, the type that pes 20 percent of lung cancer jIms, in a 47-year-old male. •wpu Ijg cancer Rad spread in his it and to his groin. try&wa tie report from Dr. Gerald J. 5,G.Rtlsika of the University of Min- |ta in Minneapolis says that pin six weeks of beginning Iment in March 1973 the cancer ed to retreat and three months [the patient’s chest X-rays were ntially normal. ” turrently the patient is without 4 . . Hence of disease more than four irs ;ifter diagnosis and more than years after stopping notherapy,” Voskia said in the Skin cancer most common form, easiest to cure Famed dermatologist finds way to cancer clue -ettemii; ^ Room i o intern d. is, liana, li U.S. United Press International BUFFALO, N.Y. — A noted cancer specialist — once faced daily with the trauma of dying children — decided a quarter century ago there must be an easier way to search for an end to cancer. Dr. Edmund Klein, associate chief of dermatology at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, turned to skin ailments after his first clinical experience with youthful leukemia victims at Harvard’s Children’s Hospital. “What I was most impressed by, was that here one of the most difficult of medical problems was being investigated and researched under the most inauspicious circumstances, the most difficult of cir cumstances,” Klein said. “What could be worse than trying to find an answer to a compli cated question by doing it in an environment which was about as complicated as could be by the fact that you had a dying child on your hands?” he asked. Klein turned to what he believed would be an easier route of finding a clue to the cancer riddle. “The best possible way of looking for an answer was to use the simplest of problems in cancer — and that, of course, was skin cancer,” he said. For his role in the development of the anti-cancer drug. fluorouracil, Klein received the prized Lasker Award in 1972 and the Founder’s Award in 1975. He has also received 40 or more awards, some of which decorate his office walls, alongside autographed pictures of personalities like New York Gov. Hugh Carey and Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., and an Ann Landers column entitled “Dr. Klein Debukes Hair Dye Scare.” When he first started experimenting with skin cancer treatments, Klein said he “thought that perhaps a good approach would be to take the same drug that was being given by mouth or vein and put it directly on the cancer.” The first time he tried putting a large dose of a drug directly on a tumor but giving little to the patient on a whole was to “a distant relative of (then) President Eisenhower” who had cancer that had spread to his finger. “The next day when we looked at the tumor, it (the tumor) had changed completely,” and eventully fell off", he said. Although the patient eventually died of his disease, cancer never returned to the finger. He later was consulted by the White House when President Lyn don Johnson had skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer and, for most types, the easiest to cure. There are more than 300,000 new skin cancer cases annually in the United States. Most of 6,000 skin cancer deaths expected to occur in the nation in 1978 are caused by malignant moles, called melanoma. Klein said 80 percent of skin cancer victims are blondes, redheads and persons with blue eyes because their skin has less melanin (a pigment which protect the skin cells from the sun), but he said there is also an “undefinable ethnic factor” involved. “Irishmen or Welshmen have a much higher susceptibility toward skin cancer than can be accounted for either by exposure to sun or by degree of pigmentation,” Klein said. But he acknowledged that some of the worst cases he has seen were in blacks or American Indians who lack pigment in one area of the body. In Europe, only darker-skin people live near the Mediterranean, because the “lighter-skinned stock (that was susceptable to skin cancer) died out long ago,” he said. Higher incidence of skin cancer arise when light-skinned Ameri cans move to the sunbelt states; and in South Africa and Australia where whites have migrated to a climate that has a “higher rate of ultraviolet exposure,” Klein said. People past middle-age are more likely to get skin cancer “since every bit of ultraviolet has an accumulative affect in damaging the skin,” he said. rf - ■Thu, Bum uring these four years he has d fulltime except as clinic Band hospitalization required. Pe patient died some months - not of cancer but of Cancer-ridden patient cured by chemotherapy, report says itist fori lit' drug used weakened his de- Tower 1“ a S a * nst infection and as a re- It the pneumonia, got a fatal nan Fat: Id. not an unusual situation for of Militi icancer victims cured by drugs. I Centei r 30 p.m; I time of death, the “cured ffnt, had been free of the 11 lung cancer for five years. ill speal der Ti United Press International CHICAGO — A new vaccine whose early tests show a high five- year survival rate among victims of lung cancer could be used to help prevent the disease in high-risk pa tients such as cigarette smokers, a researcher says. Dr. Jules E. Harris, who recently left the University of Ottawa in Canada to become director of medi cal oncology (cancer science) at Chicago’s Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, said Monday he was heartened by the early testing of the vaccine. Lung cancer victims who were given the vaccine in intervals of 30, 60 and 90 days after surgery achieved a five-year survival rate of 80 percent, Harris said. That means 80 percent of the victims who took the vaccine were alive five years later. The usual survival rate for victims undergoing lung cancer surgery is 30 percent, Harris said. He also said he is optimistic the vaccine not only could extend the lives of lung cancer victims, but also may one day be used to prevent lung cancer in high-risk patients, such as heavy smokers, who have not contracted the disease. Harris said the vaccine is being tested among 300 patients at 11 in stitutions in North America. One of them, the Roswell Park Institute of Buffalo, N.Y., will present data on its testing to the upcoming meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Associ ation of Cancer Researchers. ^ Omega Phi Alpha’s CARNATION SALE Order Feb. 5-9 at MSC & Commons On-campus Delivery Feb. 13 AL U MNI O roaj-u z.a±»or\aJL RM 13 7 MSC^oo ~ro/s> i H~r -XZbAFO: r Theati itervie* ! ; Tickets $5/couple at Rudder S3 “A Night of Winter ais, February 10, MSC Ballroom, 8 p.m. Enchantment” LADIES NIGHT For Your Class Formal Let Welch’s make it fit Impress that certain someone, let the professionals at Welch’s cleaners alterations. fast - epur^eous service ♦f ^ "r* Presented by TAMU MSC TOWN HALL SPECIAL ATTRACTION WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7,8:15 P.M. RUDDER AUDITORIUM WELCH'S CLEANERS Town & Country Shopping Center 3819 E. 29th ooc TOC GO TEXAN DAY Snook SPJST Hall, FM 60 Slovacek Bar-B-Que Starting at 12:00 noon Hay Hauling Contest 1:00 P.M. Old Time Fiddlers Contest 3:00 Whistle Off 4:00 hnisSrJxnce COMPANY MOIVIE OFFICE - BIPIVIIIMGMAIVI, ALABAMA Dance 7:30-12:30 Featuring LINDA HARGROVE Saturday, February 10th Sponsored By Burleson County Fair Go Texan Committee IK"- HW- 846-3768 301 Patricia St. College Station