Our Branch conducts population-based epidemiology research to clarify the relationship of infectious agents, especially viruses, to human cancer and other conditions. Viruses may cause or increase the risk of cancer through several mechanisms. These include allowing uncontrolled cell division, blocking DNA repair, and altering the immune system. While some viruses have been known to be related ...

Oxidative damage of DNA caused by a variety of chemical and physical agents appears to be linked to cancer. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that endogenous generation of oxidants, such as hydroxyl radical and peroxynitrite, lead to oxidation of DNA, and this may cause cancer in individuals where no obvious exposure to chemical or physical agents known to be carcinogenic has occurred....

Metals constitute a fundamentally important part of the total human environment. Since human exposure often involves complex mixtures of metal compounds and, possibly, organic compounds which may be carcinogenic per se, interactions between these compounds may add significantly to human cancer risk. Our present knowledge about these kinds of interactions is very limited. The best investigated a...

Signaling cascades initiated by Wnt lipoglycoproteins and their receptors of the Frizzled family regulate many aspects of animal development and physiology. Improper activation of this signaling promotes carcinogenic transformation and metastasis. Development of agents blocking the Wnt-Frizzled signaling is of prime interest for drug discovery. Despite certain progress no such agents are as yet...

Cancer chemoprevention is defined as the use of natural, synthetic, or biologic chemical agents to reverse, suppress, or prevent carcinogenic progression to invasive cancer. The success of several recent clinical trials in preventing cancer in high-risk populations suggests that chemoprevention is a rational and appealing strategy. This review will highlight current clinical research in chemopr...

Because tobacco smoking is a potent carcinogen, secondary causes of lung cancer are often diminished in perceived importance. The goal of this review is to describe the occurrence and recent findings of the 27 agents currently listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as lung carcinogens. The IARC's updated assessments of lung carcinogens provide a long-overdue resource f...

Oral progestogens for contraception (8) have become a feature of our culture, exposing a significant proportion of the female population to exogenous hormonal agents for protracted periods. Despite their importance, there is a paucity of published data on the effects of these agents on carcinogenesis in laboratory animals. For this reason, we are recording the results of an in vestigation of En...

Colon cancer is one of the major causes of cancer-related death in the Western world. Although cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents are available to treat the disease, these agents become ineffective as the disease advances to an invasive state. An alternative but viable approach to reduce the incidence of this deadly disease is then, to increase the dietary intake of relatively non-toxic fruits a...

background: increasing worldwide contamination with hydrocarbons has urged environmental remediation using biological agents such as bacteria. our goal here was to study the phylogenetic relationship of two crude oil degrader bacteria and investigation of their ability to degrade hydrocarbons. materials and methods: phylogenetic relationship of isolates was determined using morphological and bi...