Soldiers in the war on cancer

By Cindy Starr, Kentucky Post

Tucked away in the Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory in Newport is an archive of cancer that is the envy of far larger and richer research institutions.

This unusual treasure trove comprises 250,000 samples of cancerous tissue, a giant freeze-frame inventory that illustrates the molecular march of cancer, from normal tissue to premalignant tissue to metastatic tissue.

The cancerous specimens, provided by St. Elizabeth Medical Center and identified only by number to insure privacy, are the size of a postage stamp and an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick. Thousands of slides can be made from one sample.

Preserved in paraffin and up to 20 years old, the tissues are a snapshot in time, said Julia Carter, Ph.D., who founded the lab in 1981 with her husband, the late Dr. Harry Carter.

The specimens allow researchers to understand the molecular changes that drive cancer and to correlate a patient's cancer with the patient's treatment and whether the cancer recurred. That work eventually could lead to the development of drugs that inhibit cancer and to behavioral interventions that could prevent it.

The tumor tissue collection "is also exceptional in that it has been banked since the early 1980s," said Jeremy Graff, a research scientist in the cancer division at Eli Lilly and Co., the pharmaceutical firm. "Many hospitals are only now doing it. The Carters saw the importance of being able to do studies with human cancer tissues."

Graff said the tissue bank was a factor in Eli Lilly's decision to pursue collaborations that, since 1998, have meant more than $500,000 in research awards for Wood Hudson.

With the help of this remarkable resource and $1.7 million in equipment, Wood Hudson is holding its own as one of the few small, independent laboratories operating on the front lines of cancer research. Recent efforts by Wood Hudson include:

A study showing that Tamoxifen, the breast-cancer drug, inhibits the growth of certain prostate-cancer cell lines.

Development and characterization of an immortal mesothelioma cell line. Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

A study revealing that mutations of a specific gene in patients with colon cancer are related to environmental or lifestyle factors.

Numerous studies in collaboration with the EPA on the carcinogenic mechanisms and health effects of chlorine disinfection by-products in drinking water. Dichloroacetic acid, present in urban tap water, causes cancer when given in high concentrations to rats and mice.

A research lab, Dr. Carter said, doesn't need to have 500 people to make significant contributions.

"We're very small, we can move very quickly, and we have our resources, our tissue bank," she said.

Wood Hudson packs a punch with corporations like Procter & Gamble, a major contributor, and has earned respect by regularly publishing articles in internationally recognized scientific journals. Since 1998, it has collaborated with Eli Lilly on more than 20 studies, three of which were published last year. Nevertheless, the lab walks a monetary tightrope, with some fund-raisers fetching as little as $1,000.

"It's a struggle; the fund raising is always going on," said Dr. Jackson Pemberton, consulting pathologist at Wood Hudson and medical director of laboratories at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

"We're always trying to devise ways of increasing the visibility in the community. It's very difficult; there are so many organizations competing for charity dollars. I think there is a risk over the next couple of years that if the lab doesn't get the funding, it will go away."

Board members acknowledge that Wood Hudson operates in relative anonymity. "Ask the average person, even in Newport, Ky., and most people wouldn't have an idea of what Wood Hudson is," said Kurt Meier, a Wood Hudson board member and an attorney at Tranter & Meier in Fort Thomas.

Wood Hudson's legacy also includes the training of undergraduate scientists who have gone on to prominent positions in their fields. Among them is Eli Lilly's Graff, who trained in Wood Hudson's undergraduate research education program in 1986 while majoring in biology at Thomas More College. Graff is his company's leader in the collaboration with Wood Hudson.

The war on cancer continues slowly, and with no clear victory in sight, Dr. Carter said, because carcinogens are ubiquitous in our environment; funding for cancer research has been relatively modest; and cancer cells are difficult to attack.

"When President Nixon declared the war on cancer 30 years ago, we all anticipated it would be easier than what it's been," she said. "The problem with cancer is that cancer cells are so like normal cells that it's very difficult to be selective in attacking them."

More than 90 percent of human cancers develop after long-term exposure to chemicals or through the interaction of an individual's biochemistry with the environment, Dr. Carter said.

Only about 3 percent to 7 percent of all human cancers are inherited.

Genetic mutations are not the sole cause of cancer, because while every cell in the human body may contain a certain mutation, the cancer arises only in one area.

Dr. Carter believes carcinogens are so ubiquitous that civilization's best hope for controlling cancer lies in early detection and the development of new interventions.

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