ETIOLOGY PROGRAM AREA

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

The year April 1, 1992 to March 31, 1993 is the fourth year of the 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 in the United States. The first seminar, "Nitric Oxide Synthase and Carcinogenesis," focused on the chemistry and biochemistry of nitric oxide and the Nitric Oxide Synthases in relation to potential pathophysiological effects of nitric oxide and its reaction products. The second seminar, "Viral Regulatory Proteins and Host Factors Regulating Gene Expression, " focused on viral regulatory proteins and host factors involved in the regulation of gene expression. The third seminar, "Topics in Carcinogenesis: Malignant Neoplasms Occurring Under Particular Circumstances," dealt with carcinogenic mechanisms of nongenotoxic carcinogens and peroxisome proliferators and occupational cancer, malignant neoplasms under iatrogenic conditions, and environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer in nonsmoking women.
Two 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.