Earthquake in Chicago

Surgery, radium and X rays have their value against early, localized cancers, but researchers are looking for something far better--a drug that can be injected into the body to track down and destroy malignant cells. In Chicago last week, discovery and first tests of a substance called Krebiozen, which may or may not be such a dream drug, were announced. The result was a medical earthquake.

Hundreds of urgent telephone calls poured in on the sponsors. One call, from Brazil, was relayed by President Getulio Vargas through the Brazilian embassy in Washington./- However the long-term hopes for Krebiozen turn out, the short-term result of the Chicago announcement will be merely intensified grief. Thousands of frantic pleas will have to be turned down, since 1) the drug has not been made available for general use; 2) conservative doctors may balk at using it until its chemical nature, safety and method of manufacture are more clearly understood.

Regulator Substance. Last week's announcement was made by Andrew C. Ivy, M.D., Ph.D., head of the department of clinical science at the University of Illinois and a top-rank physiologist. Dr. Ivy introduced the discoverer of Krebiozen, Dr. Stevan Durovic, a hawk-faced, 45-year-old Yugoslav.

As guardedly explained by Dr. Ivy, Durovic worked from the premise that the growth of healthy cells is controlled by a regulator substance. When the regulator is missing, uncontrolled proliferation of cells --i.e., cancer--results. In some unspecified way, Durovic "stimulated" the reticulo-endothelial system of horses--a group of cells in the liver, spleen, bone marrow and lymphatic tissue which is believed to have some connection with the disease-fighting capacities of the body. Then, from the blood serum of the horses, Durovic extracted and purified a white powder which he believes to contain the regulator substance. He named it Krebiozen, a Greek derivative meaning "creator of biological force."

Dramatic Improvements. Beginning 18 months ago, Dr. Ivy and a team of helpers tried out Krebiozen on 22 cancer sufferers, some of whom were considered hopeless and "terminal" (dying). In general, the effect of the drug was to diminish or abolish pain, improve the appetite and "feeling tone" (subjective well-being), and arrest or retard the malignant tumors. Nine of the subjects died, but even they showed improvement before death, and some of them died of other causes (e.g., heart disease, pneumonia and other lung involvements). Two of the 13 still alive last week showed no remaining evidences of cancer.

Dr. Ivy distributed an elaborate booklet giving the case history of each subject, and containing photomicrographs showing malignant tissue, before treatment, destruction of malignant cells during treatment, and normal tissue on the old cancer site after treatment. Dr. Ivy had sent some Krebiozen to Dr. Zacharias Bercovitz of Manhattan's-University Hospital, who had used the drug on seven of his own patients. Bercovitz indicated that five of the seven seemed to have benefited.

But--in the experience of the country's best cancer specialists--a grim question had to be asked of all such reports of "dramatic improvement": For how long has the improvement been observed? If a patient goes five years without relapse or recurrence, he is generally considered "recovered"; 18 months is thought to be too short a time for a full answer. Other well-known drugs--nitrogen mustard, aminopterin, testosterone, radioactive iodine--have also brought short-term improvements, only to prove disappointing over longer periods.

Secret Toil. That was what Dr. Ivy had in mind in his approach to the evidence. He was scrupulously careful to avoid calling Krebiozen a cure. On the cover of his booklet, he called it "an agent for the treatment of malignant tumors." In his talk he emphasized that it was not the "final answer" to the chemotherapy of cancer. To 42 of the specialists whom he had invited, he distributed ampoules of the drug for testing on their own patients. He said that he would have preferred to make no announcement at this early stage of research. But, with doctors experimenting with Krebiozen all over the country, he was afraid that garbled rumors would get out. He was setting the facts straight from the beginning.

This explanation failed to satisfy some of the doctors, who would have preferred leaks and rumors to an earthquake. Moreover, they were appalled by Discoverer Durovic, who seemed to be a character out of an Eric Ambler novel. Dr. Durovic said he had fled from Yugoslavia to Argentina during World War II, and had toiled secretly in an Argentine laboratory, financed by his rich brother, Marko. Marko was on hand in Chicago last week, openly bent on getting his investment back.

Dr. Durovic was not ready to reveal the formula. He said he had become addicted to secrecy because of fear that world Communism, which he hates, would learn his methods. He sought out Ivy because of his known hospitality to new ideas.

"I Was There . . ." Conservative medical men thought that Dr. Ivy was entirely too indulgent toward all these shenanigans. Snapped Dr. Morris Fishbein, ex-editor of the A.M.A. Journal: "There are no secrets in science. Secrecy is associated with attempts to conceal lack of merit."

Said Dr. Robert T. Stormont, secretary of the A.M.A.'s Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry: "I was there at the meeting and I do not feel that the evidence presented proves that Krebiozen is either a cure or an adequate treatment for cancer. Personally, I want to see more conclusive evidence."

/- The call was on behalf of Dr. Napoleao Laureano, cancer-stricken surgeon who flew from the U.S. to Brazil last month "to die at home" (TIME, March 19). The Vargas request got results: a package of the drug was shipped off to Rio by air.

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