Declassified CIA file claims Soviet scientists once found 'cure' for cancer

For years, cancer was the plague of the modern era. It was one disease that scientists and doctors were rushing to find a cure for while patients lost their lives one after another. According to the World Health Organisation, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020.

However, it seems that the disease could have been cured about 60 years ago had the CIA declassified a document back then. A newly surfaced document from the agency suggests that US intelligence once reviewed research that hinted at a possible cancer treatment more than 60 years ago. Produced in February 1951, the document was declassified in 2014. It was based on a 1950 article published in the Soviet scientific journal Priroda by Professor V V Alpatov, a researcher studying the biochemical behaviour of endoparasites, organisms that reside inside the body of a host.

American intelligence analysts translated and circulated the paper due to its potential relevance to biomedical and national defence research during the early years of the Cold War. The report found one striking similarity between parasitic worms and cancer cells: their metabolism. Parasitic worms with human intestine rely on anaerobic metabolism, similar to tumour cells.

The revealing research

The report described how researchers believed both organisms thrived under nearly identical metabolic conditions and accumulated large reserves of glycogen, a form of stored energy.

It highlighted experiments that showed that certain chemical compounds were capable of targeting both parasitic infections and malignant tumours. Myracyl D, a drug synthesised by German chemist H Mauss in 1938 was reportedly effective against bilharzia parasites as well as cancerous growths hinting that treatments developed for the parasites might also affect the tumours. Another compound discussed was Guanozolo, a guanine-like molecule that interferes with nucleic acid production, which is vital for the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. When experimented on mice, it revealed that the tumour tissues react differently to certain chemicals than normal tissues, further reinforcing the perceived biochemical overlap between parasites and cancers. Based on these findings, the Soviet researchers proposed numerous biological features that tumours and parasites may share including the presence of unique antigens, unusual purine metabolism involved in nucleic acid production and altered enzyme systems within the cell's protoplasm. The scientists posited that malignancy might arise from chemical changes within the cell's internal environment, in particular changes affecting enzymes and the proteins carrying them.

The rising outrage

The document was declassified more than a decade ago, but has surfaced through the deep waters of the internet, just recently. This has made many question why Cold War research hinting at a possible cure for cancer, sat in intelligence archives for decades. "The Americans knew. They read it, classified it CONFIDENTIAL, and locked it in a vault for 60 years," one person shared on X. "I’m almost certain that Pandemic Planner and Pathological Liar, Dr. Fauci, knew about this…" contemplated another.

The Warburg Effect

In the 1920s, German physiologist Otto Warburg discovered that tumours consume tremendous amounts of glucose as compared to non-transformed tissues. Additionally, he found that the majority of this glucose was fermented into lactate rather than oxidised in pathways that require respiration.

Also known as 'aerobic glycosis' the Warburg effect was later introduced in key publications between 1923 and 1927. It explains how tumours are able to grow rapidly and survive in hostile environments, thus substantiating the Soviet paper. Research on the relationship between parasites and cancer is an existing arena in biology. A May 2022 research published in a Turkish journal explained how parasite and cancer cells are similar in their capacity to survive and proliferate independently of exogenous growth factors, to be resistant to apoptosis and evade host immune mechanisms.

Why does the document matter?

During the early Cold War, American intelligence agencies closely monitored Soviet advances in medicine and biology. This was done in the apprehension that breakthroughs could have implications for both public health and potential biological warfare research. While modern cancer science does not treat tumours as parasites, some aspects of tumour biology, remain active areas of research to date. Intelligence agencies often classified medical reports as a part of the broader monitoring program, rather than hiding a resounding breakthrough. All in all, the document provides a rare glimpse into the medical forays of the mid-20th century when researchers and scientists were still grappling with the fundamental nature of cancer and searching for clues that could help develop effective forms of treatment.