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Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1954
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480 BOARD OF TRUSTEES [ N o v e m b e r 28 October 21, 1952. Letters transmitted by Dr. Ivy and received by the chairman on November 11, 1952, stated that the originators of the preparation are unwilling to furnish materials and will not provide full technical information for the use of the committee within a reasonable time. Inasmuch as no technical information and no material have been received by the chairman, the committee is unable to proceed further. The only technical information available to us is contained in the report of Dr. Cole's committee, and this information is entirely inadequate for purposes of scientific study. In view of all the circumstances related above, we consider that further deliberations on our part would be fruitless. Having tried without success to carry out your instructions, we conclude that there is no prospect that we can succeed in dispelling the mystery that surrounds the chemical and biological nature of "krebiozen." Therefore, we request formally that the committee be discharged, and that the present document be considered our final report to you. Respectfully submitted, ROBERT E. JOHNSON, M.D., D.Phil. (Chairman) Acting Dean Graduate College HARRY F . DOWLINC, M.D. Head, Department of Medicine College of Medicine RICHARD J. WINZLER, Ph.D. Head, Department of Biological Chemistry College of Aledicine R e p o r t of N o v e m b e r 28, 1952, on t h e Medical Situation This report is a follow-up of my Report on the Status of Krebiozen, dated November 14th. It is in two parts: I. A general discussion of the Krebiozen research project. II. Recommendation for action. /. A General Discussion of the Krebiozen Research Project In spite of arguments to the contrary, it is hard to remove Krebiozen from the category, secret drug. Krebiozen has never been produced in the United States; it has not been subjected to standard chemical or biological assay. It was produced (and subsequently dissolved in oil) by the Duga Institute of Argentina — a business venture of the two Durovics. The barring of research on this drug is, therelore, no act on the part of University authorities; on the contrary, wc had offered our resources and, through future contract, the aid of an independent pharmaceutical concern in order to undertake such research. The Durovics blocked this program through evasive pronouncements: there was not a speck of the powder available; the formula might be stolen; their creditors would not permit it; they would analyze it themselves (through Duga) some time. It was this sudden black-out on the nature of the drug, coupled with the unanimous negative conclusions of the Cole Committee with respect to any effect on cancer, that led me to suspect that Krebiozen might be a Durovic myth. The Cole Committee had laid out the exact requirements for further work on Krebiozen, and the first step was "to dispel the mystery which surrounds the nature of the material." Elsewhere in the report the Cole Committee mentioned several materials that have cancerocidal effects, but it did not find even these palliative, non-curative effects in the Ivy case histories. As for "biological activity," numerous ingredients in solution, injected into living tissue, will produce it. There would have been no reverberation in the medical or academic world, and no interest on the part of cancer patients, if Dr. Ivy and his collaborators had simply announced in March, 1951, that they were studying a drug that induced biological activity. On the whole, the University of Illinois had been generous in aid to research on this drug. The inclusion of University Tumor Clinic cases, the release of D r . Ivy for two months for full-time work on Krebiozen, the work of the Cole Com-
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