Ellen Vaugh, age 13, of Trumbull, Conn., for her question:
WHAT IS LAETRILE?
Cancer is one of the diseases on which medical men have made much progress, but a great deal of additional research and work remains to be done in the future. It is said that one out of every four people now alive will eventually get cancer in one form or another. Doctors point out that there are more than 150 varieties of the disease.
A drug called Laetrile is being used by many doctors to treat cancer. But the product has not received the full endorsement of the medical fraternity. While many favor the use of Laetrile, just as many scientists are against it.
The federal Food and Drug Administration of the United States has not approved the use of Laetrile. In fact, it considers the sale and importation of the product to be against the law.
Today 14 states have legalized the use of Laetrile in one form or another, while about a dozen more states have legislation pending regarding the use of the drug. Individual state approval, however, has not permitted interstate distribution.
Those favoring the use of Laetrile and those against it agree that it is an unorthodox treatment. A drug called amygdalin was first isolated from bitter almonds in 1830 by a pair of French chemists. Then in 1935 in San Francisco a physician named Ernest Krebs Sr. started to experiment with amygdalin as a possible cancer cure. His first formulations, made with ground apricot seeds, were toxic. In extraordinary concentration, the apricot seeds were rich in cyanide, one of the deadliest substances known. Krebs' son, Ernest Jr., a biochemist, purified the amygdalin, removed its toxicity and rechristened it Laetrile.
In 1953, a year after Krebs Jr.'s discovery, the California Medical Assn. forbade its use in California. Laetrile therapy then moved to two clinics in Tijuana) Mexico, where it has won friends and made enemies for 20 years.
The prestigious Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York recently released a report based on four years of testing Laetrile in animals. Institute spokesmen said they found no evidence that Laetrile cures or prevents cancer, or is beneficial in treating malignant tumors. Laetrile advocates refuted the findings as being inconclusive and showed scores of successful case histories to back their claims.
At this stage, there doesn't seem to be any way of saying positively whether or not Laetrile really works in the control of cancer. Excellent medical authorities on both sides of the question are unable to agree on the answer.
One thing is certain: research is continuing, and it probably won't be too long until man is able to come up with sure cures for cancer and other diseases.