University Daily Kansan
U.S. Government Says New Drug Ineffective in Battle with Cancer
Page 3
WASHINGTON—(UPI) The government has announced that the controversial drug Krebio En, hailed by its promoters as a lifesaver for hopeless cancer victims, is really a cheap laboratory chemical proved to be ineffective against cancer in animals.
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The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), reporting the results of two years of elaborate tests, positively identified Krebio En as Creatine, a common amino acid derivative found in the blood and muscle tissues of man and certain animals.
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THE NEWS CAME as a stunning blow to hundreds of cancer patients treated with Krebio En who fear they will suffer untold agony and die if they are deprived of the serum.
More than 200 of them pickedet the White House in July in a death watch to try to persuade President Kennedy to assure them an uninterrupted supply.
In Chicago, Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, chief sponsor of Krebio En, denied the serum as creatine and said the government's finding was apparently released as a smear to avoid the performance of a clinical test.
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The American Medical Association already had termed Krebio En worthless as a cancer drug.
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FOOD AND DRUG Administration (FDA) chemists, in collaboration with leading government and university scientists and cancer specialists, tested a sample of Krebio En powder supplied by Ivy and Dr. Steven Durovic of Chicago, Yugoslav-born developer of the serum.
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The FDA has banned interstate shipment of Krebio En because Durovic refuses to file detailed plans for continued investigation of experimental drugs, as required by law. The serum may now be administered only in Illinois.
After further testing, the government plans to recommend to Congress whether Krebio En should be given unrestricted distribution in the United States. Bills are pending in the House and Senate to permit this while government testing continues.
HEW said today that creatine is readily available as an inexpensive laboratory chemical. The government's National Cancer Institute, it added, has tested creatine in a routine screening for its effects on tumors in animals.
It was found to be ineffective, even in very high doses, HEW said.
SINCE APRIL, 1961. Durovic and Ivy had distributed Krebio En to physicians on request for use on advanced and hopeless cancer patients. An estimated 5,000 patients have received injections.
Ivy said that among 500 persons originally treated, pain was cased and, in some instances, patients apparently were free of the affliction for long periods of time.
The usual charge for Krebio En was $5.50 an injection. Its backers have said they only accepted voluntary donations for the treatment.
Durovic and Ivy have described Krebio En as a yellow-white powder, an anti-cancer substance extracted from the blood of horses. The powder is dissolved in mineral oil and the mixture distributed in a one cubic centimeter glass ampule. At the press conference today, HEW said the substance is without doubt creatine. The human body, it said, will produce in 24 hours as much as 100,000 times the amount of creatine as the alleged content of Krebio En in one ampule.
THE FDA IS making further tests to try to find out how much, if any, of the chemical can be dissolved in mineral oil and how much is in the ampules the agency has obtained for study.
Ivy said he agreed with Durovic that Krebio En is soluble in mineral oil and that creatine is not. Krebio En is not creatine, Ivy said. The melting point and other chemical properties of Krebio En are different from creatine.
They acknowledge that something exists and that it is biological material, Ivy added. The existence of an anti-cancer substance in animal tissues has been confirmed by five different groups of scientists during the past two years.
Ivy said he would continue to press for a scientific test of Krebio En.
Sen. Paul H. Douglas, D-Ill., a stunch supporter of Krebio En's backers, has been critical of the government's role in the past. In one Senate speech, he charged the national institutes of health refused to start a full-scale study of Krebio
En because at the beginning of this work Dr. Ivy got into a dispute with the AMA.
THE HEW SAID various methods were used to test Krebio En, including infrared photography, X-rays and crystallographic and spectrographic studies.
Dr. T. Philip Waalkes, associate director of the National Cancer Institute, said it would be impossible to conceive how the minute doses of creatine given by Durovic could be of any value in treating cancer in view of the large amounts of creatine already in the body.
Although the chemical was proved ineffective against cancers in animals, Waalkes said, he could not recall any tests of it as a treatment for human cancer. He added that a full government report will be ready in about 10 days on the full medical records of 507 patients who have been treated with Krebio En. The records were supplied by Durovic.
More Students Face English Pro. Oct. 11
The English proficiency examination will be given at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11. Cards obtained at enrollment tell where to take the test.
Students wanting to take the test who have not already enrolled may do so at the registrar's office in Strong Hall between Sept. 23-28.
NO ONE WILL be tested without previously being enrolled. About 1,000 students have already enrolled. The test is required of all juniors and seniors in the School of Education, Fine Arts, Journalism, Engineering and Architecture and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
ROD KANEHIL HIT THE NEW York Mets' first grand slam home-run on July 6, 1962, against St. Louis at the Polo Grounds.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION NOTES
All new and revised!
5th Edition
Darwin W. Daicoff, 34, assistant professor of economics, was appointed chief economist of the new state Office of Economic Analyses recently by Gov. John Anderson.
TO BE FIRST ON THE DELIVERY LIST
$4.25
Call VI 2-1901—Now!
The 1963 legislature created the office, which is staffed by Daicoff and two consultants. Daicoff will be paid roughly $15,000 a year.
FREE DELIVERY $4.25
KU Economist Gets New State Position
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1963
Daicoff's office will be located at KU, and he will continue to teach one economics course.
He is author of three publications on economy, financing and income in Kansas and two other publications, one on Michigan taxes and the other an economic analysis of St. Joseph, Mo.
The primary responsibility of the office, Daicoff said, is to study current trends in the Kansas economy. Gov. Anderson will present the office's reports to the legislature. The research is hoped to mold future economic legislation, Daicoff said.
Kansas is the first state to have an office whose basic task is to study the economy, Daicoff said. Usually the job is done by the commerce department or the budget department, he said.
Daicoff received his bachelor of arts degree at Lake Forest College and his master's and doctor's degrees at the University of Michigan before coming to KU in 1961.
SUA Meeting Tonight For New Members
KU students interested in SUA will be able to learn the various phases of the program at a meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow night in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
The eight area chairmen will outline their activities for the year, and will explain the opportunities for students who are interested in SUA.
Opera Auditions Set
Auditions for "Madame Butterfly"
will be held again tonight at 7 p.m.
in Swarthout Recital Hall of Murphy
Hall.
The opera, by Giacomo Puccini,
will be presented Nov. 1-2 and 8-10.
Parts in the opera are open to all
KU students.
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