Meeting report: genetic environmental interactions in cancer susceptibility in animal models.

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A United States—Japan workshop on “Genetic and Environmental Interactions in Cancer Susceptibility in Animal Models” was held at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, on March 27–28, 1997 ( Fig. 1 , group photograph). An introduction to the workshop was provided by Masaaki Terada of the National Cancer Center Research Institute (NCCRI), Tokyo, Japan, who presented a comparison of mortality from common cancers in the two countries. Lung and colon carcinomas are important causes of death in both countries, whereas stomach and liver carcinomas are more important in Japan and breast and prostate carcinomas are more important in the United States. Projections for the years 2001–2010 suggest that the incidence of lung and colon cancers will decline in the United States, Canada, and Europe, while continuing to increase in Japan. Collaboration between our nations can continue to be useful, as it has since 1961 for science generally (United States—Japan Science Collaborative Research Program), since 1965 for medical science (United States—Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program), and since 1974 for cancer research (United States—Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program). The last of these programs sponsored this workshop, with the goal of examining the use of animal models for the study of genetic and environmental factors that can modify the incidences of cancer and for suggesting new preventive and therapeutic interventions in humans.