INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM AREA

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

The objective of the Interdisciplinary Program area is to develop new interest, understanding and activities by crossing disciplines concerning the origins of human cancer. Differences in cancer occurrences between the two countries often provide opportunities for fresh insights. To this end, two workshops were held this year, one on “Genes Controlling Breast Cancer Behavior,” concerned the epidemiology of breast cancer in Japan: the role of a) growth factors (estrogen, insulin-like, fibroblastic, androgenic), b) oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in the tumors, c) genes related to metastases, f) clinical factors that predict behavior including DNA flow cytometry, stress responsive genes and oncogenes, and g) transgenic breast cancer in mice.
The other workshop concerned Ethnicity and Other Groups at High Risk of Aerodigestive Cancer. Epidemiologic observations were presented first. According to data from the SEER Program each of the five main ethnic groups in the US has a different subsite at high risk, from the nasopharynx in the Chinese to the gall bladder and bile ducts in Native Americans. In Bloom’s Syndrome (genetically induced small stature and sun-sensitive rash of the face), 75% of deaths, all under 46 years of age, have been due to cancer, especially of the colon, esophagus and tongue. The steateorrheic diseases, cystic fibrosis of the pancreas and non-tropical sprue, have high rates of adenocarcinoma of the small bowel. The high frequency of Barrett’s esophagus in white males allows cells in culture to be studied in response to chemotherapy and experimental carcinogenesis. Cancer of the biliary tract is also high in Japan in the area of Niigata. With regard to large bowel cancer, studies were described concerning laboratory research, fat in the diet, the genetics of colorectal cancer and two possible ways to distinguish spontaneous from environmentally induced cancer in CD-1 mouse liver cancer.
Two scientists from Japan visited the United States under the Program: one to exchange information about diet and colon cancer at the Harvard School of Public Health and the other about the pathology of bone cancer at the Mayo Clinic.