More or Less Ferment

Up to now, doctors have not been able to tell, except by waiting for years, whether treatments for cancer were successful. But young (34) Dr. Philip M. West, senior research associate at the medical school of the University of California at Los Angeles, thinks he has found a way to show quickly whether the patient or the cancer is getting the upper hand.

Working with Technician Jessamine Hilliard, West noted that the milk-curdling property of blood varies with the patient's health. He attributed this to the relative strength of two enzyme inhibitors. These two inhibitors are mysterious, complex substances, not yet isolated and still nameless. They serve as policemen, regulating the action of the two enzymes: rennin (found mainly in the stomach) and chymotrypsin (in the pancreas). Both the enzymes are ferments which curdle milk. Their inhibitors circulate in the bloodstream.

By adding solutions of the enzymes to homogenized milk, West fixed the normal curdling time. Then he repeated the process with blood specimens containing the inhibitors, and noted the longer curdling times. His figures gave an index to the normal strength of the inhibitors.

In the presence of cancers, West found, the chymotrypsin inhibitor is greatly multiplied. As soon as a cancer patient responds favorably to treatment, the normal proportion (with the rennin inhibitor more abundant) is restored. Sometimes, West reported this week in the Annals of Western Medicine and Surgery, his test will give the first indication that a patient needs fresh treatment (for example, X rays) if recovery is to continue.

U.C.L.A. rashly called the West test "the first rapid and accurate method" of determining whether cancer treatment is having any effect.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.