Atomic Weapons Against Cancer^ 



By E. N. LocKARD 



All over the United States today there is the feeling that the dread 

 disease of cancer may not remain dreadful much longer, that in 5, 10, 

 20, or 50 years the ever-increasing number of projects engaged in 

 cancer research will win the war that has been waged for centuries. 

 The encouraging signs are many — large budgets, enlistment of 

 civilians, discoveries, publicity, special buildings, pooling or coordi- 

 nation of resources, new techniques, and devoted research. The 

 fighters on this front, like resourceful warriors on the battlefield, 

 recognize that they cannot safely place sole reliance upon any one 

 device, but that they must attack with every possible weapon at every 

 possible point, that now and at every other moment they must work 

 with every approach that looks even a little promising. But though 

 they continue to explore all possible means of control, the one factor 

 that has done most to inspire new hopes of success is the use of radio- 

 active isotopes. By means of these, atomic energy is being brought 

 into action as a neAv weapon in what has been hitherto a losing battle. 



We can understand the potential use of radioactive isotopes best 

 if first we recall some of the things we know about cancer. It now 

 ranks second only to heart disease as a killer of men and and on the 

 basis of present mortality rates could be expected to kill 19 million 

 Americans now alive — or 13 out of 100. 



Yet when we attempt to explain the causes of cancer, we are forced 

 to admit that we do not know why, when, or how the cancer cells start 

 multiplying out of or among other cells. Eadiation, irritation, chem- 

 ical compounds, viruses, parasites, and heredity are all concerned; 

 yet we do not quite know how. But on the affirmative side we do 

 know that cancer is a growth, and we know that the units of this 

 growth are cancer cells, which retain many of the characteristics of 

 normal cells. We know further that cancer is wild, luxuriant, and 

 proliferating in its growth, not subject to the mechanism of increase 

 that regulates the multiplication of normal cells, that it invades with- 



1 Reprinted by permission from The Yale Review, vol. 40, No. 1, Autumn 1950 (copyright 

 Yale University Press), with minor revisions by Dr. Seymour Wollman, National Cancer 

 Institute. 



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