Commencement Welcomes
241 To Health Fields
Wl
When the University celebrates its
123rd commencement at 3 p.m. on
Sunday, May 11, among those
receiving degrees will be 241 new/
health professionals.
Approximately 87 physicians, 80
nurses, 27 health administrators, 16
physical therapists and 31 physician’s
associates will be in the more than
2,000 Duke students to be awarded
degrees in Wallace Wade Stadium.
At 11 a.m., on Saturday, May 10, the
future physicians will gather in Duke
Chapel for the traditional Hippocratic
Oath ceremony. Dr. Ewald W. Busse,
director of medical and allied health
education, will administer the oath and
serve as speaker for the event.
At 4:30 p.m., also on Saturday, there
will be a reception for medical
graduates, their families and friends on
the lawn in front of the west entrance
to the Davison Building. M.D. and
nursing degrees will be awarded
individually on Sunday in the stadium
following the regular graduation
Festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. on
Friday, May 9, for the School of
Nursing graduates. At that time Dean
Ruby Wilson and the nursing faculty
will honor the new nurses at a formal
champagne reception at the Mary Duke
Biddle Music Building.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the graduating
seniors will attend a Recognition
Service in Duke Chapel for the
presentation of nursing pins and
special awards. Alice Deitz, assistant
professor of nursing, will deliver the
address.
Following the presentations, a
reception will be held in the Union
Ballroom.
Physician’s associates, who are
earning a Bachelor of Health Science
degree, will receive their diplomas
individually at a ceremony in the
hospital’s Amphitheater immediately
following Sunday’s graduation. Dr.
Thomas Thompson, associate director
for allied health education, will address
the physician’s associates and their
exercises. families and friends.
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6ukc univeusity mcdicM ccateR
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 18
MAYS, 1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Masked Tumors Elude Immune System Detection
By William Erwin
Duke scientists have found that
cancerous tumors may protect
themselves with a type of camouflage.
The camouflage appears to confuse
the body’s immune system, allowing
tumors to thrive unmolested. Dr. Ralph
Snyderman said here Saturday (May 3).
He said the Duke team isn’t sure yet
what the camouflage is made of or how
it’s produced. But research now
underway should answer those
questions, he added.
Snyderman is an associate professor
of medicine and a member of the
Comprehensive Cancer Center. He
reported the finding at the annual
meeting of the American Federation for
Clinical Research.
The discovery signals hope for tumor
patients. Once the scientists learn
exactly what the camouflage is, they
may be able to break it up or prevent its
formation in the first place, Snyderman
said. This could permit a patient’s
immune system to kill his tumor—just
as the system kills any other harmful
organism in the body.
Snyderman and two colleagues
published a study five months ago
showing that flu viruses depress the
immune system. While the system is out
of action, bacterial infections such as
pneumonia can gain a foothold, the
three found. The tumor camouflage has
the same depressing effect on a
patient’s immunity, Snyderman
indicated.
Three Duke studies led the
researchers to the camouflage
Fulton Road Barricades
Rescheduled for Next Week
The medical center parking and traffic office said this week that delays in
beginning the work on relocating utility lines across Fulton Road have pushed
back the re-routing of traffic around the medical center.
According to Ted Tyren, hospital project management office engineer, the
barricades are scheduled for erection, blocking a section of Fulton Road in front
of the “H” and "HS" parking lots, during the first part of next week.
The large “H” and “HS” parking lots along Fulton Road will remain open,
according to traffic and parking office, but Erwin Road at the VA Hospital
intersection will present the only access to them.
The “HS” lot parallel and adjacent to the railroad tracks between Erwin Road
and Fulton Road will not be affected.
Access to the “N ” lot which serves the School of Nursing will also t>e by way of
Trent Drive and Fulton.
All emergency traffic will t)e routed from Erwin Road to Trent Drive which runs
between the School of Nursing and the Graduate Center, and then onto Fulton
Road in front of the parking garage and Emergency Drive in front of Bell
Building.
The barricades will be erected so that construction workers may relocate utility
lines as part of the preparations for building the new Duke Hospital. They will
remain in place for about two weeks.
discovery. In the first, more than half of
148 cancer patients were found to have
depressed immune systems. Their white
cells didn’t respond normally to an
alarm signal, called the “chemotactic
factor,” that the body sets off when it
detects an invading foreign substance.
“The chemotactic factor is probably
produced locally,” Snyderman said in
an earlier interview,” when the immune
system recognizes something is wrong.
It calls white blood cells out of the
blood stream to that local area and
says: ‘Destroy this thing fast’.”
In 78 of the cancer patients tested,
many of the white cells never left the
blood stream, he said. Working with
Snyderman on the study were Marilyn
Pike, Linville Meadows, Dr. Hilliard
Seigler, Dr. Samuel Wells and Dr.
George Hemstreet.
A second research effort showed the
immune system rebounds in some
cancer patients after their tumors are
removed. Seven patients with kidney or
breast cancer were tested. Within a
week after surgery, their immune
systems were twice as active as t)efore
their operations. Patients with benign
tumors were also checked. There was
no change in their immune systems
after their tumors were taken out,
Snyderman said.
This suggested that a cancerous
tumor itself might depress the immune
system, he said.
Snyderman, Miss Pike and Barbara
Blaylock followed this lead by injecting
tumor cells into mice. Then they gave
injections of chemicals designed to
draw white cells out of the blood
stream.
Ten days after the second injection,
the animals’ white cells were 30 to 70
per cent less responsive than normal.
“This is a very exciting observation,”
Snyderman said, "because what this
suggests is that once a tumor gets to be
a certain size, it somehow confuses the
ability of the (white cells) to home in and
destroy it.”
He added: "It looks now as though
the tumor may be producing some
chemical inhibitor.” Miss Pike is
conducting a study to determine
whether the inhibitor is indeed a
chemical.
“Our wildest dream would be that if
this (chemical) really is important, and if
we could make an antit>ody against it or
pharmacologically destroy it, then the
individual’s immune system might be
able to start getting rid of the tumor,”
he said.
Golden Apples
Go To Vogel,
Dixon, Fried
Two faculty members and a resident
have been singled out by students in
the School of Medicine for their
excellence in teaching.
Dr. F. Stephen Vogel, professor of
pathology. Dr. Bruce W. Dixon,
assistant professor of hematology, and
Dr. Michael Fried, chief resident in
obstetrics and gynecology, were
chosen as the recipients of Golden
Apple Awards which are presented
annually to outstanding educators in
t>asic sciences, clinical sciences and
house staff categories.
This is the 12th year that the awards
have been presented. Winners are
selected by a vote of all m^ical
students at Duke, and the nam^ of
those honored have been inscribe on
(Continued on page 2)