Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 999

Q:

Also your shingles last year, or two years ago.

Lasker:

Yes, and also my shingles. Shingles had been shown to be responsive to this and also for hepatitis.

In October of 1977 I persuaded Deeda Blair and Dr. Jordan Gutterman to go to Stockholm to see Dr. Cantell, the maker of interferon, from Helsinki, who happened to be there, and Dr. Strander, and see what their current figures were. I wanted to know what Gutterman's and Deeda's feelings about their reports were and how much interferon could be purchased, because the Cancer Institute had purchased a small amount a year before and hadn't given it out. Nobody in the Cancer Institute thought it would work, and they were totally disinterested in it.

The only place where they were purchasing any was at the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and they gave it to Dr. Merigan to use it on hepatitis and on shingles. But you don't need to go on treating viral diseases. It's not a thing that you have to do for a year. You give a certain amount for X weeks and the disease disappears, or you don't have to constantly be treating it.

Q:

Yes, it's quite different from cancer.

Lasker:

Yes, it's quite different. A different thing. So they found out that we could purchase some. My idea was to try it in breast cancer and see what effect it had.

So we did arrange to purchase some and it was made and delivered about the first of February to M. D. Anderson





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help