Growth of Cancer
Earlier in this column I suggested that studies of the cancer-like burls found fairly commonly in northern spruce forests might contribute to the prevention of human cancers. In response, Dr. Hugh F. McCorkle, a pathologist from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, has written to point out that similar studies have been performed, with somewhat encouraging results.
Medical researchers have learned from studies of abnormal growths in plants and small mammals that abnormal tissue growth, at least in some cases, is a two-part process. First, something has to trigger the process that may eventually lead to a killing cancer. But the cells triggered may not produce malignant tissues unless the tendency toward malignancy is supported by the presence of substances that promote abnormal growth.
An example is provided by experiments wherein a cancer-generating chemical insult was injected into the bladders of rats. The injection did not result in cancer unless the rats were fed a promoting agent--in this case saccharin--for about a year.
This example also illustrates why we are warned against continued injection of certain carcinogens such as saccharin. Substances such as saccharin may not in themselves cause cancer. Yet if the body has received another substance or virus that might initiate cancer, continued consumption of the carcinogens may encourage the development of malignant cancer.
The encouraging thing about some of the experimental work with plants and mammals is the finding that sometimes cells can be made to revert from an abnormality that leads along the path to cancer back to normality. Such a reversion obviously is a means of curing cancer.