Lymphocytes: The body’s natural cancer killer

21st Ace Koch memorial oration:

Do you know that your body has cells called lymphocytes that can track down and kill cancer cells? You may wonder why there should be such cancer-killing cells in the bodies of even healthy people.

Does it mean that anybody is liable to get cancer at any time? The answer is a resounding yes. But don’t be alarmed. Our lymphocytes will kill cancer cells in most of us all the time and in a few of us most of the time. In an unlucky few the cancer cells will defeat the lymphocytes. Even in them the victory of the cancer cells can often be overcome by the enhanced activity of lymphocytes.

Combat Soldiers

How does it come about that all of us are liable to get cancer at any time? It is like this. The cells in our body are constantly being renewed by cell division.

Every now and then something goes wrong with the process and an odd cell appears which multiplies like mad. Such a cell is the beginning of a cancer. The good news is that lymphocytes usually identify such terrorist cells and kill them. In other words the lymphocytes are the body’s natural defenders - the combat soldiers - against cancer.

The Physiological Society of Sri Lanka is happy to announce that this year’s Ace Koch Memorial Oration - the 21st in an unbroken annual series - will be delivered by Professor Anura Weerasinghe an expert on lymphocytes.

He is the Professor of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kelaniya. His theme is the role of the lymphocytes in bone marrow transplantation which is a form of treatment of leukemia.

Clinical Immunologist

Professor Anura Weerasinghe who graduated M.B.B.S. from the Colombo Medical School in 1983 is a double doctor (M.D, PhD) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Ceylon College of Physicians.

He was a distinguished Consultant Clinical Immunologist at Sri Lanka’s Medical Research Institute before he was appointed Professor of Physiology in the University of Kelaniya.

He is a great believer in the health benefits of a clean, natural lifestyle and his oration will discuss how the production of cancer- killing lymphocytes can be enhanced by healthy living. Healthy living includes a low-fat, whole food, plant-based diet, moderate exercise and - needless to say - no smoking. The lecture will include some clippings from the famous movie “Some Birds Can’t Fly” about a little girl with leukemia who got better when her grandfather took her to live in a forest. The implication is that a life close to nature is good for treating and preventing cancer.

Prof. A.C.E. Koch

Professor Weerasinghe is too young to have been taught by Professor Arthur Cecil Elsley Koch (1903 - 1969). But because he was my pupil and I was Professor Koch’s pupil Professor Weerasinghe may be said to belong to the Koch Tradition of Physiology. Professor Koch was the first Lankan to hold the post of Professor of Physiology in the Colombo Medical School.

When he died in 1969, Professor C.C. de Silva the Founder Professor of Paediatrics wrote an obituary which was published in the British Medical Journal of 27 September 1969. In it he averred that Koch was the first Sinhalese to hold the post of Professor of Physiology in the Colombo Medical School and that he was the first Sinhalese to be elected a member of the Physiological Society of Great Britain.

The interesting question is why he chose to call Koch a Sinhalese not once but twice in the same sentence. It may well have been that to C.C. de Silva, ACE Koch was like flesh of his flesh and blood of his blood.

They were both men who were capable of comprehending intellectually and accepting emotionally the fact that for all our differences in appearance, colour, language, religion and customs, all humans are members of one great family. I for one always felt him part of my kith and kin.

I called him my fairy godfather and his daughter Ann and son Graham who are currently in Australia say that I was their father’s blue- eyed boy. They enthusiastically support the annual memorial oration held in honour of their father.

The 21st Ace Koch Memorial Oration will be held at the Lionel Memorial Auditorium, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7 on Thursday the 20th of November at 6.30 p.m.

- Prof. Carlo Fonseka