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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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only about 32 or 33% survive at three years. In other words, you have nearly a doubling of survival.

Now, this is with giving interferon every day for a month and twice a week for eighteen months. It may be they're giving too small doses, and it may be that they're not giving it in the right -- they're not giving it in pulses (spurts). It seems that sometimes giving of a drug in pulses, instead of giving it daily or once or twice a week --

Q:

You mean, that's in pulses, spurts?

Lasker:

Yes, in spurts. But at any rate, interferon is better than anything else that's known at present as a non-toxic drug. This is relatively non-toxic and prevents viral infections in patients. About one-half of cancer patients die of viral infections who are being treated for cancer with toxic drugs.

There are similar results that are not quite as good, but fairly similar, with very toxic drugs, such as methotrexate, in osteogenic carcinoma, but to have a drug that doesn't make you ill is a tremendous -- well, actually the results aren't as good as this. They're around 50%, not quite as good as this, with toxic drugs after operation.

At any rate, it's a tremendous advantage to have a non-toxic drug, something that's naturally occurring in your body, that the body can be stimulated by. Viral diseases have already been shown to be effectively treated by interferon.

So Strander's work is really what stimulated me to be interested in interferon.





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