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37
gainst Cancer
Dr. Kenneth Foon's researchers at
the University of Michigan are
providing the initial ingredients that
will 'lead to a cure.
BY LARRY PAL ADIN°
Special to The Jewish News
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Ken Foon one of these days might
be responsible for saving your life.
The 38-year-old Detroit native,
now a researcher at the University of
Michigan's Simpson Memorial Cancer
Institute, is optimistic that in the
years to come — perhaps even soon —
he'll find the "silver bullet" that will.
cure many, or all, forms of cancer.
If cancer is to be conquered,
chances are it'll be someone like Foon
who'll be the conqueror. But for those
suffering from it, cures can't come soon
enough. They'll grasp at• any straw.
Foon has provided some of those
straws, but he is quick to caution
against that big breakthrough. "But I
feel we're going to see more and more
small breakthroughs," he said, "rather
•than a big final one. In my lifetime, I
think some of the hig cancers will be
conquered, but I can't say that all of
them will be. It's a slow, grinding war
of attrition."
Dr. Foon's been fighting the war
since leaving his days of internship at
the University of California at San .
Diego in 1973 to accept position with
the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda, Md.
"We called ourselves the Yellow
Berets, the affable Foon said, during
an interview at his home within walk-
er,
ing distance of the U M campus. "This
was during the Vietnam war and they
took us in as public health officers. We
were able to do research in non-
uniformed services, so I was a lieuten-
ant commander in the Navy."
Between then, and now Foon, a
Wayne State University Medical
School graduate, held many important
positions. He has become recognized as
one of the top five or six scientists in
the world in the clinical, application of
monoclonal antibody research. Before
coming to Ann Arbor last summer he
spent four years with the federal gov-
ernment's National, Cancer Institute .
•in Frederick,.Md. At the U-M Medical
Center he is- helping bring together a
team to develop advanced biological
therapies for cancer treatment. These
therapies involve the use of the body's
own disease-fighting chemicals (or
synthetic reproductions -- "clones").
•for treating cancer.
Foon, who went to U-M from 1964
to 1966, is associate directoi of the Di-
vision of Hematology and Oncology at
the university, as well as an associate
professor of the Department of ,
Medicine.
."I came to Michigan almost on a
• lark," he said. "I never expected to ac-
-
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