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Summary.-AKR mice of which more than 900,, die of lymphatic thymus leukaemia, had their mean survival time increased by weekly intraperitoneal inoculation of either of the two polycations DEAE-dextran and polybrene. Administration of the neutral dextran had no effect, whereas the polyanion dextran sulphate accelerated leukaemia development.Adult BALB/c mice infected with Rauscher leukaemia virus and treated from the time of palpable spleen enlargement, showed a life prolonging effect of the polycations DEAE/dextran and polybrene, and of neutral dextran. BALB/c mice treated from the time of leukaemia infection, however, showed a life prolonging effect with polyanion dextran sulphate and also of neutral dextran.

In 1988 a follow-up investigation was made of a case-control study conducted in 1962 in Iceland which tested hypotheses that trace elements in pasture grass, drinking water and cow's milk were associated through diet with cancer of the stomach. Samples were collected in 1962 from 26 farms in the northern county of Skagafjardarsysla and 30 farms in the southern county of Rangarvallasysla. The main objective of the present study was to establish the cancer experience of the 297 residents of the 56 farms since 1962. In the records of the Icelandic Cancer Registry 31 cases of cancer of all types were identified. Six were cancers of the stomach and four of these were from control farms. The revised comparison of trace element analyses for case and control farms yielded no change in earlier results for pasture grass in Skagafjardarsysla (excess levels of B, Na, AI, Fe and Cu on cancer farms), but B appeared as a significant deficiency on cancer farms in Rangarvallasysla. Drinking water results were unchanged (no significant differences), but for milk the significantly high mean values of Fe and Zn reported earlier for Rangarvallasysla did not appear. The pronounced geographical variation in Icelandic stomach cancer incidence that was widely cited from 1961-65 is now believed to have been spurious.