The Wrangell Sentinel

Examinations Urged to Halt Spread of Cancer

Every girl whose mother has cancer should have a thorough physical examination each six months until 35 years old and each four months past that age, since cancer is much more prevalent among women than men.

That warning was given at Meany Hall at the University of Washington by Dr. Clarence Cook Little, former president of the University of Michigan and president of the American Society for the Control of Cancer. Dr. Little's lecture, "The Heredity of Cancer," was sponsored by the King County Medical Society.

120,000 Mice Used

Dr. Little, considered one of the leading medical research workers in the country, told of extensive experiments carried on with more than 120,000 mice the past twelve years.

"Cancer is no longer a disease to arouse fear, because in early stages it can be fully cured in nine cases out of ten. If it appears in your family, check up, be careful - but don't get panicky!"

The noted medical scientist said the most modern studies to date have approved only three methods of cure: X-ray, radium and surgery.

Cancer Clinics Approved

Dr. Little stated that the American College of Surgeons has approved two cancer clinics in Washington, the King County Hospital and the Swedish Hospital in Seattle. He praised the experimental work being done in the study of high-voltage X-rays by University of Washington physicists at the Swedish Hospital, where he visited.

Preventive medicine is becoming the greatest foe of cancer, he declared. If all people would have regular, thorough physical examinations that dreaded scourge could be stopped, he said.

Utilizing one of the most powerful and newest high-voltage X-ray machines in the world, scientists of the University of Washington have launched a research program here which is expected to produce results of deep interest in the fields of pure science and medicine.

Directed by Dr. Donald H. Loughridge of the University's physics faculty, a research staff is completing experimental equipment in specially designed quarters in the Tumor Institute of the Swedish Hospital, which, it has been revealed, has entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of Washington.

Although the quest of the University's scientists is to advance the cause of pure science, it is held extremely probable that some of the research results will aid the eradication of one of humanity's greatest scourges--cancer.

The Swedish Hospital's 1,000,000 volt X-ray plant, put into operation early this year, was designed and is used for treating cancer. It will also serve as the source of 'radiation' which the University men will study. Professor Loughridge, aided by a staff of skilled graduate students has erected equipment by means of which the path of secondary radiation can be studied. Two extremely high-speed cameras, carefully synchronized, photograph these 'secondaries' as they pass through a gaseous medium which reveals their course.

The clinical experts of the Swedish Hospital, headed by Dr. C. B. Ward, will, it is expected, find this information of great value as it will then be possible to predict the position of tissue which will receive the greatest effect from an X-ray beam passing through the body.

During a part of the summer Professor Loughridge will work at the California Institute of Technology with the noted Dr. Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize winner in physics, with whom he was formerly associated. Under Dr. Millikan's direction is one of the three large X-ray tubes in the country; the Seattle installation is another. The third is in Chicago.