paul@phs.UUCP (Paul C. Dolber) (08/16/85)
Since there has been mention in this space of the relative lack of cancer cures coming out, I thought this might be of interest. From the "Durham Morning Herald," August 15, p. 8A: "(AP) -- An unconventional new treatment for advanced liver cancer, a generally fatal disease, is proving exceptionally successful in shrinking tumors and has even produced a handful of apparent cures, says a Johns Hopkins scientist. "Dr. Stanley Order said the treatment, involving injections of antibodies [to what?] carrying radioactive isotopes, has significantly shrunk inoperable tumors in 50 of 104 patients and has left seven patients apparently disease-free -- two of them for more than a year after treatment." [Several paragraphs omitted.] "Order... also distributed copies of a separate report -- soon to be published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology -- in which he and colleagues contend that a similar treatment produced comparable results in fighting another cancer, Hodgkin's disease. "He said there are no harsh side effects... but he cautioned that much remains unexplained. For example... the fact that remission of the cancers in many of the patients has reached a plateau, with the tumors neither continuing to shrink nor resuming growth." Maybe things are looking up? Regards, Paul Dolber (...duke!phs!paul).