SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
The year April 1, 1990 to March 31, 1991 is the second year of the fourth 5-year program of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program. The objective of the Etiology Program Area is to clarify the causes of human cancers and to determine the mechanisms of carcinogenesis. It has been envisaged that cancer prevention may be achieved eventually through progress in the science of cancer etiology.
Three seminars were held during this period. All three seminars were held in the United States. A fourth seminar which was scheduled to be held in Japan in January 1991 was canceled because of the Persian Gulf War.
The first seminar, "Manifestation of Prostatic Cancer," focused on the various epidemiologic, etiologic, and biologic manifestations of multistage prostate cancer with particular emphasis on the similarities and differences between the expression of the disease in Japan and the United States. The second seminar, "Hepatitis C Virus, A Causative Infectious Agent of Non-A, Non-B Hepatitis: Prevalence and Structure," dealt with the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a cause of hepatocellular carcinoma. The third seminar, "Scientific Basis for Carcinogenic Risk Assessment of Environmental Carcinogens," focused on risk assessment of both genotoxic and non-genotoxic carcinogens and current topics of risk assessment and prevention.
Three scientists from Japan participated in the exchange programs in etiology research, which has as its mission to provide a fundamental basis for understanding cancer causation that, in turn, would help in identifying effective means for preventing or modulating this process.
During the reporting period, the following compounds were shipped from the United States to Japan: 5mg of Benzo(a) pyrenetrans-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide (anti), and the following compounds were shipped from Japan to the United States: 7 g of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo 4,5-!!
!pyidine.