One of the great problems of all cancer treatment is the side effects. "There's no drug now that kills only cancer cells," says Dr. John Merrill of the Northwestern University Cancer Center. "You inject a particular artery, and the drug gets into the bloodstream, thereby damaging normal cells." That may no longer be the case if two Northwestern medical students, Ken Widder, 26, and Andy Senyei, 28, have achieved the breakthrough they hope. In 1976, while just in their second year, they dreamed up the idea of adding a grain of iron to the anticancer drug, then placing a magnet on the skin near the malignant area to hold the medicine there until it is absorbed.
Abandoning med school temporarily to continue this dramatic research, the pair developed a tiny protein bubble, one-eighth the size of a red blood cell, in which the medicine and iron (less than that consumed daily by a healthy adult) are contained. Then, with a $40 Army surplus magnet, they found in tests on rats that they could use only one percent of the dosages previously employed and achieve the same concentration. "It's an idea born out of the conviction there must be a better way," says Widder.
The son of Chicago physicians, Widder first balked at the idea of pursuing medicine. "I thought of international law or diplomacy, even spying," he confesses. Senyei came to the U.S. at 6, a refugee from the '56 Hungarian uprising. His father is an accountant, his mother a computer operator in L.A. W&S are now back at Northwestern Med School while awaiting government-required toxicity tests before human experiments are permitted. A drug firm will pay for the testing. "We still ask ourselves," says Widder, "is it science or science fiction?"
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