Drugs Against Cancer

Through the National Institutes of Health last year, Government scientists spent $30 million to test no fewer than 50,000 potential cancer-fighting drugs. That measures the size of the job in achieving the chemotherapist's dream: an effective cure for the major forms of the disease. Last week the physician who treated President Eisenhower's ileitis, Dr. Isidor S. Ravdin of the University of Pennsylvania, pulled together and appraised the results so far:

> In cancer of the large bowel, 5-fluorouracil, the drug used on Speaker Sam Rayburn, offers "some control against malignancy" (TIME, Oct. 20).

> In treating cancer of the breast, thiotepa has proved to be a useful ally of surgery. Said Dr. Ravdin: "Twenty percent more women did not have their cancer reoccur" when the drug was used with surgery.

> In choriocarcinoma, a rare cancer that attacks the sac surrounding the developing fetus in pregnant women, methotrexate has "in many cases" brought about absolute cures.

Doctors may well find better ways to treat cancer before its causes are understood, says Dr. Ravdin. But even in understanding the basic cancer mechanism, much progress has been made. "It is highly likely that before another year has passed we may well find." he said, that some human cancers are caused by viruses.

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