R. Süss

Genetics and cancer

Virchow’s “cellular pathology” had placed the cell at the center of the theory of disease: cells, the bearers of life, are also the seat of diseases. If anyone wants to learn about disease, he must first of all study cells.

A Closer Look at Chemical Carcinogenesis: Quantitative Aspects

“I contend, however, that in each particular natural theory there is only so much real science as there is mathematics,” said Kant years before Lord Kelvin. And with this severe criterion he dismissed the chemistry of his time: “... thus chemistry can never become more than systematic art or an experimental doctrine; it can never become true science.” Chemistry has long since matured beyond Kant’s verdict, with the firm theoretical underpinnings of thermodynamics and atomic theory.

Natural History of Some Tumor Viruses

“Cancer is not an infectious disease.” Hundreds of years of experience by surgeons and pathologists had graven this sentence in stone; precautionary measures had never been taken in handling tumor material, and had never proved to be necessary. The cancer ward is not an isolation ward. It must have seemed a ridiculous idea to propose in all seriousness that viruses can occasionally cause cancer. Viruses are responsible for smallpox and influenza epidemics, but what should they have to do with stomach carcinomas and lung cancer?

Summary: A Program for a Computer

We still have to draw a balance, even if it comes off poorly. Of the many tumor theories, practically nothing remains that we can hold on to. There is still no satisfactory answer to the question, what is a tumor cell. One thing we can be sure of: cancer can be experimentally induced by the most varying means. But now as ever it is unknown whether there is a common denominator for all these different causes of cancer.

Tissue-Specific Growth Regulation (“Chalones”)

The size of an organism is by no means determined by pure chance: “Man, as a lung-using animal, cannot be as small as an insect, and vice versa. Only occasionally, as in the case of the Goliath beetle, do the sizes of beetles and mice meet and overlap. Thus, each group of animals has its upper and lower limits” (D’Arcy Thompson).

A Few Models for Tumor Chemotherapy

The recipes for success from chemotherapy of bacterial disease cannot be applied to the battle against tumor cells: the penicillins, for example, block the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall without disturbing the cell membranes of a mammalian cell. But in spite of all their differences, the tumor cell and the normal cell are both mammalian cells. Thus there was pessimism everywhere concerning the possibility of finding substances which would selectively kill tumor cells. But in 1946, success was reported: Hodgkin’s disease had been successfully treated with nitrogen mustard. Nitrogen mustard is a highly toxic compound, though, and extreme care in dosage was required. Still, people began to prepare compounds of similar types, and it was hoped that substances could soon be found that could kill tumor cells without causing too great damage to the normal cells of a normal tissue. By now, over a quarter of a million chemical compounds have been synthesized and tested for effectiveness against tumors, not one of which was a “wonder drug.” In spite of this, many of these chemotherapeutic agents have their merits; a few of them have secured a place alongside the surgeon’s knife and the radiologist’s high energy beams.

The Mitochondria and Warburg’s Cancer Theory

The mitochondria — the power plants of a cell — stand at the center of one of the oldest biochemical tumor theories; this theory-sees the actual requirement for malignant growth in the damage to cell respiration and in “aerobic glycolysis.” In 1923, Otto Warburg discovered glycolysis by tumors; in 1955 he collected observations and hypotheses into a suggestive mental structure.

Host Factors in Tumor Induction

Small causes can have extensive effects. In Newton’s mechanics this is not the case; there, for every force there corresponds an opposing force, for every action an equal and opposite reaction.

Multiple Step Hypothesis of Chemical Carcinogenesis

Since Yamagiwa’s pioneer experiments on the rabbit’s ear, the skin has again and again been the organ of choice for experiments in “artificial” carcinogenesis. The reasons are obvious: skin is easily-accessible, and a pipette is sufficient to apply any given carcinogenic substance. Just as important is the fact that one can look at the tumors. Palpation or autopsy are unnecessary; careful visual observation is enough to establish whether and how many tumors have developed on the back of a mouse or on the ear of a rabbit.

Tumor Immunology: Basics of a Host-Specific Tumor Defense

Organ transplants succeed only with art and trickery: to perfect technique by the surgeon must be added outwitting of the host’s defense mechanisms. But these are old problems. Van Helmont, a Flemish physician of the seventeenth century, reported: A certain resident of Brussels had lost his nose in a battle and went to the famous surgeon Tagliacozzus, who lived in Bologna, with the request to supply him with a new nose. Since he was afraid of having a cut in his own arm, he hired a porter, out of whose arm — after a financial agreement had been reached — a new nose was formed. About 13 months after he had returned home, the transplanted nose suddenly became cold, decayed, and fell off within a few days. His friends, who were interested in an explanation of the reason for this misfortune, found out that the porter had passed on at just the same time that the nose became cold and foul. There are still reputable people in Brussels who were eye witnesses to this story.