Viral induced cancer query

[msg at athene.hh.ri.ccf.org]

In article <3hdm2n$6ik6 at pegasus.unm.edu>, <bhjelle at unm.edu> writes:
> 
> In article <Pine.ULT.3.91a.950208130037.17373B-100000 at hardy.u.washington.edu>,
> Clay Malinak  <malinak at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> >
> >In your posting, you asked about the first suggestion that viruses caused 
> >cancer. Although the idea had been discussed before then, Charlotte 
> >Friend in 1957 published the first peer-reviewed work which gave evidence 
> >for viral etiology of a specific cancer. She was initially dismissed as a 
> >heretic for this work, but it is now seen as a seminal paper in the 
> >development of modern viral oncology.  The paper is "Cell-free 
> 
> I believe this honor should be given
> to Peyton Rous, who showed that a filterable
> agent (ie virus) could transmit sarcomas
> among chickens in 1911! (Believe he can
> be forgiven for not having EM and PCR
> etc, in 1911). It took quite a bit longer
> to find oncogenic viruses of mammals.
> 

Before the 20th Century there were numerous reports of bacterial and filterable 
agents associated with various cancers.  One need only browse the microbiology 
journals before the turn of the century (1880-1900).  Despite all of these 
reports, unequivocal data was not shown until Ellerman & Bang reported that a 
chicken leukemia was transmissible and dependent upon a filterable virus in 1908 
and 1909. 

Ellerman, V. and Bang, O. (1908) Cent. f. Bakt. Orig. xlvi. 595  

Ellerman, V. and Bang, O. (1909) Zeit. f. Hygiene u. Infectioshrank. lxiii., 231.

Unfortunately for all of these pioneers, Yamagiwa and Ichikawa reported in 1914 
that the application of coal tar to the ears of domesticated rabbits 
unequivocally and reproducibly induced carcinomas.

Yamagiwa, K. and Ichikawa, K., (1914).  Verhandl. d. japanischen path. Gellsch., 
Tokyo. 

These observation opened the door to studies in chemical carcinogenesis and 
supplanted the interest in biologic agents as etiologic agents of cancer for 
several decades.

Mark S. Galinski

Department of Molecular Biology
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
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