The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 62

THE COURIERJOURNAU LOUISVILLE, KY. SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 15, 3 Has Cancer Cure Hit Plateau? Since '55, relatively little progress has been made; more-effective drugs and discovery means needed 3ii'1 4 "li r'U 1 I A 1 rrj ft----- By ALTON BLAKESLEE Increase in Cancer Survival Rate Site-Lungs, Stomach 1940 1959 1 9 is jn 1 7 xStomach 12 -tePjU 11 -XT-Lungs ise)" '-womei1 7-751 A Zlungs 5 Itsff Phots Something new is added almost weekly at the University of Louisville Radiation Center. Here, technician Thomas Banks examines an isodosi-meter being installed under the betatron, a powerful X-ray machine. The isodosimeter will measure radiation intensity used in treatments. New Grants Enable UK, UL To Step Up Cancer-Study Plans Schools among U.S.

leaders By PAUL BULLEIT, Staff Writer ply and painlessly, whether any cancer cells are being sloughed off from the uterus. Stomach Cancer Rarer For reasons totally unknown, cancer of the stomach is not so common now as 20 years ago. The cure rate, when this cancer does occur, is up only slightly in the last 20 years. Acute leukemia still is fatal, but now 80 per cent of children win remissions, or temporary reprieves, from drugs. These last for months, or even in some cases for two or three years.

A very few youngsters have gone far longer. For cancer of the breast, little prog-ress has been made in 10 years in boosting chances of cure. Skin cancer is most highly curable your chances being four out of five for cure and one reason is you can begin to suspect pretty early that something is wrong, and have it treated. What Figures Say What all the figures, from various yardsticks, say is this: Excluding skin cancer, your over-all chances of whipping cancer are about one in three. This is a general average.

Some cancers with good prospects of cure, such as cancer of the cervix, rectum and colon, are fairly common. And some cancers with poor prospect of cure, such as cancer of the stomach or pancreas, are not very frequent Lung cancer is alarmingly on the rise, and the chances of cure are pretty grim so far. Grim, also, are figures showing that more Americans, in total numbers, are getting and dying from cancers than 25 or even 10 years ago. A principal reason is that there are millions more of us now than a generation or so ago. And more Americans are living to middle age or beyond, the years in which people become more susceptible to cancers in various sites.

More Men Than Women In 1964, the cancer death toll was More men are dying each year now from cancer than women. This year, it is estimated that 550,000 Aitoclittd Pratt Ntwilairurta Illustrations Chart shows increases in survival rate since 1940 of men and women who have been hit by lung and stomach cancer. NEW YORK (AP) -If cancer should strike, just what are your chances of. being cured? Vastly better than 25 years ago. But not much better than five to 10 years ago, for most types of cancer, a frank look at cancer-cure rates shows.

And most authorities expect little improvement until more effective drugs re found, or until greater progress is made in detecting cancers early, or preventing them in the first place. What 'Cure Means In cancer, "cure" means A person is living with no signs of the disease five years or longer after it had first been treated. In 1940, one in five patients was cured. Now, one in three is cured, the Ameri-'. can Cancer Society estimates.

But that rate has been holding fairly steady. Earlier detection usually boosts I chances of cure, for then a cancer is more likely still to be localized, more likely to be totally removed, or destroyed by surgery, or radiation, or drugs. Your chances depend also partly upon the type of cancer, where it is located, Whether it is slow or ast-growing. Reports Not Made Hard-and-fast figures on average chances for cure are hard to come by. The main reason is that in more than (half of the states, doctors and hospitals don't report the fact that a patient has cancer and is being treated for or report the results.

The main figures by which to measure cure rates come from a few states which for years have had cancer registries. All new cases of cancer are reported, as well as treatments, and what happens to these patients one to many years later. One such yardstick comes from combined figures from three state registries, plus a number of hospitals across the United States. In order to indicate the most-recent trends rather than waiting five years this analysis uses three-year survival rates from the time treatment started. Survival Rate Higher For cancer of almost every site, says this analysis by the iNational Cancer Institute, the three-year survival rate was higher for people getting cancer in 1955-59 than during 1940-49.

The greatest improvement occurred in the years up to 1955, but since then "except for cancer of a few sites, there seems to have been relatively little progress." Here are some examples in percentage: CANCER TYPE 1MM4 150-S4 t5J-S Stomach 15 IS Colon (man) J4 4 Colon (woman) 31 4 53 Bloddor 4t 57 58 Lunt (mn) 1 7 Lum (womtn) 7 11 12 Skin (mtn axcapf male- nmo or black cancar) tl 1 raasf (woman) ai al as Pancrati 3 1 3 Carvlx (Invailva) 4 4 44 Of all major cancers, other figures show, the greatest gain has come in preventing deaths from cancer of the cervix and of the uterus with death rates down by about half since 25 years ago. This is credited mainly to early detection, through "pap" smears and examinations, and improved treatments. But here also the rate of life-saving has not been increasing lately. It is estimated that only half of American women have ever had the smear test that checks, sim- detected early enough, and if they re-ceived the best available treatments. These are large "ifs." There are no easy tests yet to spot most small, early cancers hidden inside the body, in the stomach, lungs, pancreas, liver or other sites.

There have been many false alarms of hopes for a blood test saying one important thing: This person has a cancer somewhere in his body. With such a test, doctors then could concentrate upon hunting down the site, and begin treatment earlier. Yearly Checkups Help With yearly checkups, the chances are slim that a small cancer could be missed, and grow to fatal proportions before the person had another checkup detecting the cancer. Early detection does very often save lives. And detection methods are better now than 10 years ago.

Cancer-detection clinics, examining thousands of presumably healthy persons, do find cancers and do initiate earlier treatment that increases cure rates, the clinics report. More people are getting cancer checkups now. One survey indicates only 14 per cent of Americans had exams for cancer in 1948, compared with 44 per cent in 1962. Cure rates for cancer of the cervix should be 100 per cent, says Dr. Emerson Day, reporting results of detection examinations at the Strang Clinic in New York City.

Skin cancers should never cause deaths. And, he adds, cancers of the colon and rectum should be 75 per cent curable, and half of cancers of the prostate gland could be detected in time to be curable. Suggestion Offered But such clinics examine 1,000 persons for every 10 found to have cancers. One suggestion is that detection efforts be concentrated mainly among middle-aged and older persons who are more susceptible. A thorough checkup to seek unsuspected cancers is not possible for everyone the nation's doctors could spend all their time just on that effort.

Furthermore, many people, especially in lower social-economic groups, do not have regular general-health checkups, and their cancers, when detected, tend to be well-advanced. It is also unfortunately true that the very best kind of treatment is not available to everyone. More research to learn why cancers begin, how to prevent them, how to detect them more accurately, how to treat them most effectively, holds the ultimate answers. Meanwhile, the best practical defenses suggested by cancer authorities to boost your chances are: More concentration upon finding cancers that can be seen or felt, particularly through examinations of the rectum, cervix, lymph nodes and breast, or on the skin. More preventive action based upon present knowledge about known or suspected causes.

Cigarette smoking, for instance, is blamed as a cause of lung cancer, and smoking can be diminished or stopped. Too much exposure to the sun is blamed for many skin cancers. Some chemicals that people work with are known to cause cancers in animals, and unnecessary exposure can be avoided. Any one person's chances of escaping or overcoming cancer involves an element of luck. In time, knowledge will replace the luck.

Americans will be diagnosed as having cancer. Thousands will join the ranks of the 1,300,000 who have won their battles in the past and are still alive. The American Cancer Society says half of these new victims one in two could be saved or cured if their cancers were $7,200 for two similar fellowships at UK. The cancer battle has been joined in earnest by UL's Eadiation Center at Floyd and Walnut. With the aid of the betatron, a superpowerful X-ray machine, doctors are learning more about the use of high-speed electrons in the treatment of cancer.

By directing these electrons and penetrating rays at cancerous tissues, scientists at the center have been able to attack the malignant disease and affect cures in more than a third of the cases. Among the professors involved with cancer research at the Radiation Center is Dr. Herbert E. Brizel, a radiologist whose work is being financed partly by a tAree-year, $24,000 grant from the American Cancer Society. Colonels Give Money The ACS had contributed more than $120,000 toward work at the center, and will put up $20,000 more this year.

The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels also is a big contributor. Cancer research and treatment are progressing at Louisville Veterans Hospital. Louisville Memorial Hospital's cancer clinics are still held regularly except during the summer months. St. Joseph Infirmary does some work in radiation therapy, as do most other Louisville hospitals.

Among the names of Kentucky doctors known throughout the nation in the field of cancer research are those of Dr. Ben Eiseman, chairman of the UK College of Medicine's department of surgery, and Dr. William M. Christopher-son, chairman of UL's department of pathology. It is estimated that more than 9,000 Kentuckians will discover this year they have cancer.

In almost half the cases, cancer will be in the colon and rectum, lung, breast or uterus. THE IMPACT of cancer research under way in Kentucky soon may be felt in health and medical circles throughout the world. Accelerated programs at the Univer-sity of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, both recognized nationally as institutional leaders in cancer research, have been given added impetus in-recent weeks by substantial new grants. The fact that the national cure rate of one in three patients has been holding steady for a few years does not mean that important advances are not being made, nor that scientists may not be on the brink of preventing and finding a total cure for this second-greatest killer of humans, Kentucky authorities believe. Only heart ailments cause more deaths.

The ACS has just announced a grant to a UK doctor for a project to induce breast cancer in rodents of two separate strains. Using the powerful tools of radioactive labeling, isolation and analytic chromatography, Dr. James W. Flesher hopes to learn more about what takes place when tumors develop, and why the two strains differ in their susceptibility. Fellowships Financed Also at the UK College of Medicine, Dr.

Earl D. Rees is well into a study of another aspect of breast cancer. His work is being financed by a $28,891 grant from the ACS. Other UK doctors involved in important studies of cancer are Dr. Rene Menguy and Dr.

Joseph Engelberg. In addition to these grants, the ACS has recently provided $10,800 for clinical fellowships in pathology, radiotherapy and surgery at UL. The society gave MAN'S PROGRESS AGAINST CANCER CATEGORY 1937 1964 Saved (alive five Fewer than one-in- One-in-three years after treatment five Uterine cancer Chief cause of cancer Death rate cut 50. death in women Could bo reduced much more Lung cancer Mounting: no hope of Still mounting: but up- control ward of 75 could be prevented Research support' Lett than $1,000,000 More than $215,000,000 Cancer clinics and 240 in U.S.A. and 963 plus expansion registries approved Canada of teaching, research, by American College treatment centers of Surgeons State control meas- Seven states All 50 states wres Chemotherapy Almost no research Major research attack has produced 24 useful drugs One in two patients ceud be saved today by early diagnosis and prompt treatment.

LBJ's Talent Scout Needs A Computer And A 15-Hour Day By FRANCES LEWINE calling him as he drove on a downtown street. It turned out to be the President, in his limousine near by, impulsively asking his talent scout to come around to the White House for lunch. "The children were amazed," Macy recalls. In 1958, Macy, then executive director of the Civil Service Commission, decided to take a breather from 20 years of government life, which had included administrative-personnel work in the Social Security Bureau, at Los Alamos with the Atomic Energy Commission, and in the War Department. He says he found the Eisenhower Administration not quite so receptive to his ideas for higher civil-service salaries, greater flexibility in might entail.

Macy has been using appointments to advisory groups and committees to get the services of experts, hoping they'll catch Potomac fever and accept a fulltime Washington job later. An Ambition Realized Macy himself is a shining example of a government career success story. He says his job now "is fulfillment of my aspirations of 20 years ago" and he gets the greatest fun out of the close, informal association with the President of the United States and "being directly involved with the formulation of personnel policies for the government." One Sunday, taking his wife and children to church, Macy heard someone jfmiimnfc. .11 the examining process and recognition of employe unions. He had gone back as executive vice-president to his alma mater, Wesleyan University (Class of '38) in Middletown, where he had majored in government and won a Phi Beta Kappa key.

Kennedy Named Him He really didn't like the slow pace of college life, and eagerly accepted when newly elected President John F. Kennedy, looking for a career man for the job, called Macy back in 1961 to head the CSC. Macy thought his friend and neighbor Ted Sorenson, a presidential adviser, had suggested him, but found that six others had brought his name to Kennedy. LBJ stopped Macy at a cocktail party to tell him to come in and talk about the role of talent scout. He gave Macy that job right after the 1964 election because he wanted advice from someone with professional background who knew federal government and the Civil Service.

Macy admires Johnson from working with him on the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity, set up by Kennedy in 1961 to halt racial discrimination in federal hiring. It made progress, Macy says, "largely because of his (Johnson's) strong commitment to it." Macy also shares Johnson's desire to boost women in government from their joint efforts on the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women under Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. "Every day he (LBJ) says 'Let's find some feminine Macy says. But Macy has his troubles coming up with them.

His 20,000 punch-card dossiers include about one fourth women. But when the cards are run through the computer to match qualifications and experience with a profile of the job to be filled, Macy reports the women fall far short most often on public-service experience. WASHINGTON (AP) Whoever scouted the President's talent scout John W. Macy Jr. found a man with a special skill for finding others.

"Between Macy, President Johnson and Vice-President Humphrey, they know everyone of any consequence all over the country," an aide says. Macy, with the help of a computer and "a network of contacts," tries to keep LBJ supplied with just right candidates for presidential posts. He draws on computer-punch-card records of over 20,000 prospective nominees and sources across the country in industries, labor unions and private organizations. A very personable personnel man, Macy works doggedly 14 to 15 hours a day, with as much zest as the President, at his dual job as chairman of the Civil Service Commission and as Johnson's talent scout Macy says the talent scouting is just a natural extension of his role as head of the CSC and its 2.5 million government employes. And he spends about a third of his time at it To Him it Recreation All-in-all, Macy finds his job so stimulating "I can't imagine a recreation I'd enjoy more." A dossier on Macy, like the ones he supplies daily to the President, might go like this: A Democrat, with over 20 years' experience in government personnel, from Post Office to Pentagon.

Handtsome, youthful (48), tall (6 feet 1), prematurely gray hair (crew-cut), full of vitality. Described by those who know him as "sharp as a tack" and with a "memory like his computer." Extremely well-liked, an expert public speaker (on or off-the-cuff), married (1944), four children (age 3-13). Episcopalian, he finds time to attend weekly religious class; devoted tennis player; expert on baseball (but he's lucky if he gets to one ball game a year now). His wife (the former Joyce Hagen of Rochester, N.Y.), a Smith College graduate who met him while working as a wartime research analyst for Army Intelligence, says: "John can't waste a a minute. He's never doing nothing." Those who deal with Macy might keep in mind her insider's tip: "When he's mad he just doesnt talk." Commuting between his fifth-floor office suite in the new Civil Service Building to the executive offices near the White House, Macy uses a government car.

He'd like to walk the few blocks, but it takes too long. Many Jobs Open Macy's main goal these days is to get caught up with the seemingly endless number of job vacancies for presidential appointees. Every week, Macy pulls from an electronic computer the score card for LBJ on appointments and vacancies. By mid-July, Johnson had named 320 men and women to top-salaried jobs in his administration. But almost every day, a new high-level post become vacant.

To help fill these key spots, Macy sends daily memos to the President, usually half a dozen names or more for each. He says Johnson, keenly aware that his appointees reflect the caliber of his administration, takes care and devotes much time to them. The President reviews Macy's memos in his night reading, acts on them with remarkable speed, "usually coming back the next day with his appraisal," Macy notes. Sometimes the President rejects the whole batch; asks for more suggestions; seeks advice from Cabinet, close friends. He frequently calls for personal interviews and full FBI reports.

He has read some FBI reports that run 100 pages. Looking for a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where the boss needs plenty of managerial skill, Johnson read a book which detailed the role of Vice-Adm. William F. Raborn in developing the Navy's Polaris missile system. It came as a surprise, like so many of his recent appointments, when Johnson called Admiral Raborn out of retirement to head the CIA.

No 'Conditions Set Macy says "politics as usual" is not a consideration in finding the best men. The search is taken without preconditions, Macy says, adding that the approach in each case must be different as the jobs differ. Macy and his helpers prepare a profile of each job and the requirements for int before they begin the search for who can best fill those requirements. Macy has worked in civil-service executive posts under three presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson pushing for better pay so the government can compete with private industry for the nation's best talent. He says Johnson, with 34 years' experience, "characterizes himself as a career man in government" and more than his two predecessors tries to elevate men and women from the ranks of federal service.

Macy says he is often told that some prospect "would be great but you'll never get him." "I don't let that deter me," he adds. He finds most turndowns come for financial reasons, because key men in private enterprise often can't afford to take the pay cut a government post P. I a pinn a Km 1 afi wwAyw 1 John W. Macy Jr, the President's talent scout, starts his 15-hour work day at 7 a.m. by putting down the top of his convertible before driving to his office in Washington from his residence in McLean, Va.

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