Harvard Doctors Report Advances

Two Medical School doctors reported yesterday their development of new uses for recent medical discoveries, cholesterol and cortisone.

Nancy L. R. Bucher, instructor in Medicine, outlined the new use for cholesterol which may provide a clue to understanding heart disease and cancer. Lewis W. Hill, clinical associate in Pediatrics, announced that cortisone, a substance produced by the adrenal glands, is proving effective in the treatment of asthma and eczema among young children.

Dr. Bucher's experiments have demonstrated, for the first time, how blood cells produce cholesterol and how broken cells produce it more effectively. This may lead to the discovery of how cancer spreads through the body, and adds to present knowledge of how an excess of cholesterol in the blood vessels causes hardening of the arteries.

The cortisone experiments which Dr. Hall has been conducting show the new drug's ability to stop "wheezing" among asthma victims, especially young children, and to limit the spread of eczema on the face. It is also useful in treating severe cases of poison ivy.