View report page

65
the graft coat its cells and protect them against cellular immunity.
There follows the possibility that if cellular immunity controls
malignant disease in a similar way and if this is followed by the
development of antibodies against cancer, such control is correspondingly
diminished.
It is known that if cancer cells are used to immunize an animal
and the lymphocytes thereby activated are introduced into the donor
of the tumour, they react immunologically against the original
tumour. If this 'delayed allergic response' is the basic defence against
cancer, then species in which it is well developed would be expected
to have a low cancer incidence rate. This has been found to be so.
Only in man, the primates and guinea pigs is this 'delayed allergic
response' fully developed and it appears to be linked with cortisoneresistant
qualities, these being high in man, monkeys and guinea
pigs but low in rats, mice, rabbits and ferrets, etc.; natural incidence
of cancer is related, inversely, to these qualities.
Following this hypothesis through, it provides an explanation
for the high incidence of cancer in childhood when one would expect
immunological inadequacy and the accelerating rise after middle
age associated with progressive inability of this group to initiate
new immunological reactions with advancing age.
Some evidence has been accumulated to the effect that cellular
immunity in people with cancer is low but whether this is the cause
or result of the disease has not yet been established. Anabolism of
protein in guinea pigs increases their capacity to produce a delayed
allergic response and catabolism diminishes it. If man reacts in the
same way, the wasting arising from malignant disease would reduce
immunological cellular resistance but this cachexia may well be
superimposed on a natural immunological incompetency which
permitted the establishment of the original cancer.
Paradoxically, perhaps, research work in Chicago has shown
that restriction of certain essential amino acids in the diet (in this
instance phenylalanine) has a decided reducing effect upon advanced
malignancies. Although a moderate body weight loss was evident,
the absence of toxic side effects and the maintenance of haemoglobin
and serum protein levels was an encouragement to pursue this line
of investigation.
Childhood Cancers—Survey—During the current year cooperation
continued with Dr. Alice Stewart of the Department of
Social Medicine, Oxford University. Notifications are received of
all childhood deaths due to cancer in Greenwich during the previous
year and after suitable preparation, if the parents are willing, they
are visited by a Medical Officer who completes a penetrating history
of the child and his or her family background. A control child is
selected and the procedure is repeated. During 1965, as in 1964,