Chemistry of Cancer

Ten years ago, E. Freund and Gisa Kaminer of Vienna published results of investigations on cancer which attracted attention throughout the scientific world. They had found that the serum of the blood of cancer patients would not dissolve cancer cells, whereas that of normal persons would. They claimed, indeed, that the cancer serum would protect cancers against the dissolving action of normal serum. Now they have announced in the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift (Vienna Clinical Weekly) the results of their last ten years of work on this subject. They have found in the intestinal contents of persons with cancer a substance which, when added to the serum of normal persons, changes it to resemble the serum of persons with cancer. The normal serum loses its power to dissolve cancer cells. They found that the addition of fats, such as palmitin, to this substance, increased its action, and they have isolated an unsaturated dicarbon acid which they claim is the substance responsible for the growth of cancer cells. When palmitin was added to the intestinal contents of normal persons and the mixture incubated, another acid was obtained--a saturated dicarbon acid-- which they state had specific powers in dissolving cancer cells. It is the belief of the Viennese investigators that in the presence of added factors such as local irritation, from bruises, ulceration, burning or similar causes, the chemical substances mentioned have the power of encouraging or preventing the growth of cancer. They hope to extend their studies by producing cancer experimentally with the aid of the newly isolated chemical substances, and to determine the possibility of preventing the growth of cancer, by the use of the preventing chemical substance. Investigators of cancer throughout the world will no doubt attempt to confirm the work of Freund and Kaminer and to extend the observations further.