Linus Pauling: Nobel Prize Scientist

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The National Cancer Institute can decide who gets the money to do these things and who doesn't. But they're not willing to take a chance. They only want to bet on the sure things. And, of course, as long as they do that, they'll never make any really important discoveries.

PLOWBOY: Isn't it true that you've run into resistance also with the National Academy of Sciences? Didn't the editors of the Academy's Proceedings reject your first paper on vitamin C and cancer?

PAULING: Yes, they did reject my first cancer paper, and it was rather odd. Especially when you consider that I had been the editor of PNAS once for five years, and I've been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1933. In 1914, the Academy decided that members had the right to have their papers published in the proceedings, and this policy of "free access to members" was followed for 58 years. And then — in 1972 — they decided to reject my cancer paper. So I ended up submitting the paper to Oncology, where it was finally published.

PLOWBOY: How did you and Dr. Cameron manage to get your most recent cancer paper-the one involving the 100 patients who got vitamin C, and the 1,000 matched controls — published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences?

PAULING: We argued with them until we got in! (laughter).

PLOWBOY: Can we expect to see more papers by you and Dr. Cameron in future issues of the proceedings?

PAULING: Yes, I think so. Ewan is working on a couple of papers right now. One of them is a description of 20 case histories ... people with cancer that he's been able to treat successfully with vitamin C. We have some other papers in the works, too, Dr. Cameron and I. Ewan is a non-resident fellow of our Institute, The Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine.

PLOWBOY: What kinds of work are the scientists at the Linus Pauling Institute engaged in currently?

PAULING: Well, we've done a good bit of work on improved methods of analysis of body fluids as a means of diagnosing disease. We continue to do quite a bit of work along those lines. The rest of the work that we do is in the fields of cancer and aging. We have some interesting animal studies in progress ... nutrition in relation to skin cancer in mice, for instance. We're limited, however, by the fact that we don't have much money.

PLOWBOY: The Linus Pauling Institute is in need of funds?

PAULING: Yes.

PLOWBOY: Can people send donations directly to the Institute at 2700 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025?

PAULING: Yes indeed. All donations are tax-deductible, too, because the Institute falls under Section 501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Practically all of our cancer work is supported by private contributions.

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