Page 16/The Battalion/Wednesday, March 23, 1983
Adult leukemia cure
linked to antibodies
United Press International
NEW YORK — Genetically
jngineered antibodies, especial-
y designed to zap abnormal
pells, may advance the treatment
)f adult leukemia and spark
progress similar to that seen in
reatment of childhood
eukemia.
The hope comes from Dr.
Hurt I. Civin, assistant professor
>f pediatrics and oncology at the
fohns Hopkins Medical Institu-
ions in Baltimore.
He said one of the keys to
dramatic improvements in cur-
ng childhood leukemia in the
>ast decade has been the ability
>f researchers to diagnose varia-
ions in certain kinds of leuke
mia so doctors know exactly
Jvhich cell types become
ibnormal.
The so-called subtyping had
aken place only in acute lym
phocytic leukemia, the most
ommon childhood type.
Civin believes his investiga-
jions should lead to a similar
understanding of acute
myelogenous leukemia (AML)
and custom-designed treat
ments.
AML accounts for only 10
percent to 20 percent of all
leukemias in children. But it
constitutes about 80 percent to
90 percent of adult leukemias.
Advances in curing children
with leukemia, now at about 60
percent success rate, have been
credited largely to drugs de
signed to rub out lymphocytic
cells. Those are the cells that
turn cancerous in acute lympho
cytic leukemia.
Civin hopes that pace will go
on once subtyping of AML dis
ease becomes as well established.
“To subtype AML, we need to
know much more about the
myeloid cells, the bone marrow
cells which become cancerous,”
he said.
“By knowing more about
which subtypes of myeloid cells
become cancerous, and at what
stage in their maturation they
are arrested, we should be able
to improve therapy.”
In AML, myeloid cells seem to
stop maturing at a point in their
growth. The normal cells are re
placed by the arrested growth
abnormal cells.
He believes the research
might lead to one or more of the
following:
• Development of drugs to
wipe out only the affected cells,
sparing normal ones.
• Discovery of tumor-specific
antibodies to serve as markers
only for cancerous cells.
• Development of drugs that
might be piggybacked onto
tumor-specific antibodies, so the
drugs are carried only to cancer
cells.
But at this point, he cautions
these are only theoretical possi
bilities.
Painless
possible
eye surgery
with new laser
United Press International
CHICAGO — Doctors say a
new “cold” laser that explodes
tissue instead of burning it
bpens the way for a new era of
sye surgery. It’s painless, takes
seconds and patients can go back
o work that day.
Dr. Manus Kraff, an ophthal
mic surgeon at Northwest Hos-
nital — one of six centers in the
nation to receive the $130,000
aser last fall — calls the laser an
Exciting new development in the
leld of ophthalmology.
“What we used to have to do
vas to go in with a knife at the
jperating table and make a slit
>r an opening in there,” said
<xaff, who also is president of
the American Intra-Ocular Im
plant Society.
“Now we focus a light in there
and the light literally explodes
that tissue. It vaporizes it, or ato
mizes it, and makes that
opening.”
The laser can. treat patients
with cataracts and diabetic
hemorrhages and may be able to
help doctors prevent some
blindness.
The “cold” laser is so called
because it delivers its energy in
pulses and creates practically no
heat as do conventional argon
lasers widely used in . eye
surgery. The new laser is known
as the LASAC neodymium:
YAG laser. YAG — yttrium alu
minum garnet — is the crystal in
the laser.
This particular laser was de
veloped by Dr. Franz Fankhaus-
er, an opthalmic surgeon in
Bern, Switzerland, and was de
monstrated last week at a Uni
versity of Illinois Department of
Ophthalmology symposium.
In Europe, the laser already is
used to cut scar tissue and adhe
sions and treat diabetic hemor
rhages. Fankhauser has been in
vestigating the treatment of
glaucoma.
Kraff said the laser will prob
ably be more useful in the pre
vention of certain types of blind
ness than in the actual treatment
of blindness.
m
K>
4
m
«
Tonight!
Ladies ‘Night
Ladies Admitted Free
and
Drink Free bar drinks
Free draft beer
Free wine
7:00-9:00
250 draft beer for men
in the gameroom
1600 S. College 779-6529
*
*
*
*
■¥
¥
¥
¥
Parents paying high price
Smugglers reunite familie
United Press International
HONG KONG — Parents de
sperate to be reunited with their
children are hiring smugglers to
get the youngsters illegally out
of China into Hong Kong.
But it can be dangerous for
the children.
“I have seen some of these
children tucked under the floor
boards of a leaking sampan,
frightened out of their lives, in
some cases drugged so that they
won’t make a noise and be de
tected,” said Police Commission
er Roy Henry.
Given uses genetically en
gineered monoclonal antibodies
to accomplish the subtyping. De
veloped in his laboratory, these
tailor-made antibodies match
receptors — antigens — on the
surface of myeloid cells.
The smugglers, known local
ly as “snakeheads,” sneak the
children past barbed wire bar
riers and armed patrols along
the border, or bring them in by
sea to be reunited with parents
who fled their homeland to find
new homes.
“And then if they are de
tected, they’re abandoned by the
racketeers and left either to
drown because the racketeers
have jumped over the side, or to
wander in a confused state of
mind not knowing where they
are, not knowing what they are
doing.”
Nearly 4,000 children, aver
aging only 6 years old, have been
smuggled into Hong Kong since
October 1981, when Hong
Kong revised its immigration
laws and no longer granted illeg
al immigrants permanent resi
dence.
cutoff want to be reumi
children they left behind
na. But gettingpermissit
Chinese authorities is uu
Immigration authorii
secretive about the h
plying to illegal immigra
dren, apparently to an
con raging the smugglini
The general policy
Tin
tt change
reduced the
■ in-
immigrants — childt
flux o
f Chinese
from hundi
eds
adults alike — is to sr
of the
tusands it
i 1979-80 t
o a
hack from whence tli
trickle
of a few t
housand a y<
t?ar.
But with minors, an
Nov
v many ol
f those who
en-
said, each case is judge
terfd
Hong K<
mg before
the
own merits."
Bronco a bowler’s heaven ;et
United Press International
DALLAS — In the south part
of town, literally on the other
side of the tracks, is a little bit of
bowling paradise: the Bronco
Bowl, 72 lanes of hardwood
heaven, and it could be argued
that bowling is just its sideline.
“It’s got the works,” said
Richard Babb, a Safeway clerk
who bowls at the Bronc a couple
of times a week.
One marquee out front, the
biggest of three that sports a
giant bowling ball and pin, is less
modest about what the Bronc
offers. “World’s Finest Recrea
tion Center,” it brags, and that
might not be an overstatement.
For the record, the 180,000
square-foot building offers 72
lanes of bow ling (with automatic
or “Magic Scoring”), a golf driv
ing range, three batting cages,
an archery range with six
targets, 31 pool tables, a barber
shop, a beauty salon, a nursery,
video games, a snack bar, a pri
vate club and a 2,500 seat audi
torium that offers a variety of
shows and exhibitions, includ
ing one weekend of full contact
karate in early March.
The facility opened in 1960 in
the Oak Cliff section of mostly
black south Dallas — not the
part of town frequented by its
owners, the billionaire Hunt
brothers, Nelson Bunker, W.
Herbert and Lamar.
Lamar Hunt said the Bronc
was built by the brothers as a
business enterprise. Hi
has l>een no silver mint
Hunts.
Manager Don Strvke
mer pitcher in the
White Sox organization,
Bronc keeps from 25(1
Ixiwling balls on hand.
“Friday and Saturday
biggest nights," Sink
“and if the weather’s b
ness is really good."
nited I
.1.1 LAF
<, the w'or
lanent a
nBday at
was
days, 17 1
Helhad Ik
nan-made
Kh 2.
Tokyo Steak House
NEWP'KT
-mversitv <
esitian Jol
:ause of dt
Hand.
n jvstems
N
4 o
Aggie Special
Chicken Fried Steak
Other Daily Specials
s 3 50
s 3 95
)wan said
ten the m
lan DeV’r
: not avail
B|< \ wer
Visit our new Aloha Club
Clyde Dove at the piano Fri. & Sat.
Happy Hour V2 price drinks
4:30-7 10-12 M-F
A NEW CLASS IN STUDENT LIVING!P ecaus<
• compact, efficient space
• 3 minutes from campus
• security/covered parking
• washer/dryer in every unit
• CHANCE FOR FREE TRIP TO EUROPE’
(• subject to total occupancy)
846-8960
Hla.k suff
nlsday af
an ik-7 ht
an hour at
arl was
Bout 4 p
dlbu ngrac
r (lictors
the
Bre the:
ii fair c<
inn
Oyster Bar Coming Soon!
Hours
Mon.-Sat. 5-12
Sun. 5-10
Tokyo Steak House
Texas Ave. 846-5711
ground T
Classified
Heal....
^ — *^Pp>nions
- Pports...
This T-shirt offer can’t be topped
Order now!
ptaie
Jpational.
Police Bea
Boat's up
This red & white T-shirt, tor men and
women, is made of 50% combed cotton
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Please send a check or money order for $4.95 per T-shirt (no cash, please) to:
Seagram’s 7 Crown T-shirt Offer
P.O. Box 725, Dept. 249
Lubbock, Texas 79491
Name_
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TAMB34
Adult sizes only. Specify quantity.
T-shirt @ $4.95 ea., S M L ^ vi a r-
Offer expires January 31,1984. No purchase AL : Amoun t Enclosed $
m — mm fM M 8£5%sales tax Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for shipment