Fishing for Clues
to Cancer

Walleye and the secrets of human tumors
by Ranjit Arab

    I couldn't help it. The first time I heard of Sandra Quackenbush's cancer research on seasonal tumors in the walleye, it reminded me of an animated movie.

    Not just any animated movie, mind you, but one in particular, The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

    You remember that one, right? Don Knotts is a mild-mannered bookkeeper fascinated with fish. After being rejected by the Navy, he mopes along the pier, stares into the water and repeats his escapist mantra, "I wish I were a fish." He falls into the water and is transformed into a blue animated fish (although he still wears his glasses).

    Later, Knotts -- as fish -- helps the very Navy that rejected him by acting as its secret weapon, tracking down German U-boats and helping them turn the tide of World War II.

    Which brings me back to Quackenbush. Surely, I imagined, anyone who thinks the walleye contains the "secret weapon" to turn the tide in the war on cancer is some sort of kindred soul with the Incredible Limpet. Anyone who dedicated countless hours of research to closely examining this freshwater member of the perch family clearly had to have some sort of, WELL... fish fixation, right?

    Wrong.