17-07-2025
From the archive: Found — the virus that causes cancer
From The Times: July 17, 1925
It can now be stated that the discovery of the virus believed to be the cause of cancer, which was made by Dr Gye and Mr Barnard FRS, has been investigated and confirmed by Dr Murray, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, to whom the matter was referred by the Medical Research Council. This fact is, of course, of first-rate importance, since it testifies to the validity of the results obtained.
It was, of course, inevitable that attempts would be made to immunize animals against the new germ.
Considerable progress has been achieved already in this direction. This work must on no account be confused with 'cure', to which it bears no relationship. The possibility of a successful vaccination against cancer has, however, now appeared on the scientific horizon.
The Lancet this week publishes the complete paper of Dr Gye and Mr Barnard. It is important to notice that the new work effects a reconciliation between two schools of opinion which, only a week ago, seemed to be irreconcilable: the view that cancer is due to a parasite or germ and the view that it is due to some change in the body, as a consequence of which certain cells turn traitor or rebel, and, defying the law of the body, seek their own exclusive welfare.
This last view held the field and had the support of the most distinguished authorities. They pointed to a long chain of discoveries and observations, all of which seemed to support their conclusion. Thus cancer could be caused by employing tars and paraffins as 'irritants'; it could be caused by parasitic worms; and it could be caused by X-rays and radium. Further, it assuredly was caused by chronic irritation from, for example, a sharp tooth, a gall stone, a betel nut held in the cheek, a 'fire basket' carried round the waist, and so forth and so on.
• The Times view: It is time to be optimistic about cancer
It appeared that a disease capable of being produced by factors so widely different and so diverse could not possess any one 'cause'. Gye has solved the riddle by showing that both views of cancer — the germ theory and the growth theory — are right. Cancer is caused by a germ; but the germ cannot grow of itself. It requires a 'third partner', a 'growth-producing substance', to prepare the ground for its activity.
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