1994: Molecular Genetics of Cancer, Vol. LIX
Organizer: Bruce Stillman
This was the third in three Symposia dealing
with cancer, stretching over a 20 year period; the first was on
Tumor Viruses (1974) and the second on Viral Oncogenes (1979).
But while this is the third Symposium on cancer, it is, in fact,
the fourth in a series of meetings on cancer at Cold Spring Harbor;
a special meeting on The Origins of Human Cancer was held in the
Laboratory’s centennial year, 1990. (Organized by Joan Brugge,
Tom Curran, Ed Harlow, and Frank McCormick, the meeting volume
was published in 1991 as Origins of Human Cancer: A Comprehensive
Review by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.)
The differences between the 1979 and 1994
Symposia are remarkable. In 1979, the viral oncogene src had been
discovered and it had been realized that it was derived from a
cellular gene. But as the application of recombinant DNA techniques
to caner research will still in their infancy, the viruses remained
the objects of study. Apart from Howard Temin in his introduction,
human cancer was notable by its absence from the 1979 program.
By contrast, the names of viral proteins appear in only two out
of 86 presentations, and the majority of papers dealt with the
molecular characterization of human cancer genes and the biochemical
analysis of the functions of their proteins. By 1994, among others,
genes involved in breast cancer (BRCA1), colon cancer (APC; DCC);
myeloid leukemia (AML1); and myelogenous leukemia (c-ABL) had
been cloned.
What is evident from the contents of the
Symposium is the extent to which Howard Temin’s hope of
15 years earlier– “...tumor viruses may provide simple
agents to study the processes and the molecules involved in all
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oncogenesis and in much differentiation”–had been
realized. The first three sections dealt with cellular functions
and processes that when things go awry lead to oncogenesis. The
first section was on the cell cycle and its regulation, including
cell senescence. There was even one paper (but only one) on development–Gerry
Rubin’s paper on ras signaling in Drosophila eye development.
The second section covered DNA damage and repair, while the third
discussed apoptosis.
But, as Ed Harlow pointed out in his summary
of the meeting, there remained a huge gap between the clinical
care of patients and the world of basic cancer research. There
were some bright spots–there had been a session on therapies–but
the application of research findings to clinical practice was
still the major challenge. Harlow noted that he had come to the
Symposium not knowing whether he would become depressed by all
that remained to be discovered about cancer. He was pleased to
find that he was enthusiastic: “We continue to make impressive
strides, and with each one a little more of the puzzle is solved.”
— Jan A. Witkowski |
