Water for Cancer

For many years physicians have known that powerful doses of X-rays will destroy cancer cells, but no scientist had ever worked out a satisfactory theory for this phenomenon. Two years ago Italian-born Physicist Gioacchino Failla, who is in charge of the physics and biophysics laboratories at Manhattan's famed Memorial Hospital, suggested a straight-forward physical theory for the lethal effect of X-rays. An electric charge passing through a cell, said Dr. Failla, divides the molecules of protoplasm into positively and negatively charged particles. These ions then recombine to form new chemical substances. In a vain attempt to re-establish osmotic equilibrium in the cell, water from the intercellular spaces flows into the cell through the membrane, causing the cell to swell up and die.

Last week at the Washington meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Failla and his associate, Japanese Chemist Kanematsu Sugiura, told how they confirmed this theory and discovered a powerful new treatment for cancer. If the theory were true, reasoned the scientists, water injected directly into a tumor after treatment with X-rays would increase the swelling of cancer cells, kill them more quickly.

Following this lead, they X-rayed the tumors of 82 mice infected with a deadly form of mouse cancer known as sarcoma 180. Then they injected into the tumors small amounts of sterile, distilled water several times a day for three to six days. Results: small doses of X-rays, when followed by water, produced an unusually strong effect. Large doses of over 1,000 Roentgen units, when followed by water, completely destroyed all the mouse tumors. When the scientists omitted the X-rays, tried only water, the cancer cells did not die--only the combination worked.

"As to practical application of these findings," concluded the scientists, "nothing can be said at this time. If human tumors react in the same way to the combined X-ray and distilled water treatment . . . the range of successful application of X-rays in the treatment of cancer will be materially increased. For, at present, good results cannot be obtained in many cases because the tumor is so insensitive to X-rays that the large dose required to kill it will cause too much damage in adjoining normal tissue."

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