The Patchwork Mouse: Politics and Intrigue in the Campaign to Conquer Cancer by Joseph Hixson. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Patchwork Mouse: Politics and Intrigue in the Campaign to Conquer Cancer. By Joseph Hixson. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1976. Pp. 228. $7.95. Since the earliest time the theory and the practice of medicine have been the subjects of deceits, hoaxes, impositions, and outright charlatanism. The greatest of the charlatans loomed large in the history of medicine. Books, pamphlets, and thousands of articles in periodicals and newspapers have been written about them. From a composite view of many whom I studied and knew personally I once created a portrait in writing of the typical imposter. William Summerlin was different; no one could resemble that portrait less. Summerlin did not have to sell himself to a large public. He did have to convince Robert Good, a distinguished scientist of high repute, winner of great numbers of awards and citations and "no man's patsy." An investigator is subject almost automatically to a number of checks and controls. He works in a laboratory, seldom alone, and constantly meets other workers in similar areas. He prepares manuscripts about his work which after passing several local controls, such as the head of his division or of the whole laboratory, are submitted to scientific periodicals and are there subject to reviews . If he reads his paper before a medical or scientific society, those present may express their convictions or their doubts as to what he has done. This path was followed by Dr. William Summerlin, but the various screens did little to restrain him. His earlier advances in medical research had brought him to the attention of Dr. Robert Good, who had created a small research empire at the University of Minnesota. The time was ripe for interest in the type of research that had been the major focus of Summerlin's studies. The transplant of a heart by Christiaan Barnard and the rejection of foreign tissue by the tissues of the recipient had centered attention throughout the world on such immunologic problems as the matching of tissues, the prevention of rejection, the selection of donors, and many other problems as yet unsolved. Summerlin had developed a technique which he thought would assure assimilation of a transplant from a donor to a recipient of different tissue types. The process involved a sort of specific conditioning . In the construction of his great department in the University of Minnesota , which attracted world attention, Good was like the general manager and chiefcoach ofa team in any sport—constantly on the lookout for brilliant players to achieve stardom. He brought Summerlin to Minnesota. When SloanKettering and Memorial Hospitals in New York, spending the greatest sums on cancer study yet available and observing the trend toward immunologic studies as the prime interest, requested Good to come to New York to succeed Dr. Frank Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1976 | 593 Horsfall, Good needed the support of a considerable number of his team. He brought with him somewhat in excess of fifty people. With Summerlin's transfer he received an appointment to the rank of full professor at 34 years of age, with control over a dermatologie clinic and supervision of a number of staff including six postdoctoral fellows. Shortly thereafter uneasiness developed at SIoan-Kettering. The work of Summerlin which he had done at Stanford could not be duplicated. His animal grafting experiments were in doubt. Came a time when Summerlin was called by Good to show some of his work and explain his results. Positive evidence was offered that Summerlin had painted the skin of his mice to give them an appearance that they did not merit. This may not have been the point when trouble began, because little areas of turmoil had already become apparent in many phases. This was the point, however , when prestigious newspapers and news services became involved. From these eager beavers the story exploded like a bomb keeping its time schedule. Among the writers was Joseph Hixson, a science writer of 25 years' experience, who had worked among leaders in the press both medical and lay, and who had been for 2 years employed by Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as director of public affairs. Mr. Hixson has done a remarkable...