Transformed Cell

Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute, details the years of clinical and laboratory research that led to his developing the controversial cancer therapy using interleukin-2 (IL-2), a protein produced by the human immune system and synthesized in the lab. Treatment involves withdrawing a patient's cancer-killing white blood cells, mixing them with immune-activating IL-2 and injecting the mixture back into the body. Publicized by the medical establishment and the media as a breakthrough, IL-2 has, as Rosenberg notes here, severe side effects and cures only a minority of patients afflicted with only a few kinds of cancer. In addition, two critics of the medical establishment, Jane Heimlich ( What Your Doctor Won't Tell You ) and Ralph Moss ( The Cancer Industry ), have pointed out that IL-2 is prohibitively expensive and that treatment with it may require many weeks of hospitalization. Rosenberg also discusses his work on gene therapy, an experimental modality in which genetically altered white blood cells are reinserted in the cancer patient's bloodstream to attack the tumor. One feels that he overstates the promise of both types of treatment. Photos. ( Sept. )