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SUMMARY
Author(s) -
Andervont Howard B.
Publication year - 1957
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1957.tb49723.x
Subject(s) - citation , cancer , library science , medicine , gerontology , family medicine , computer science
Perhaps the major contribution of this monograph will be to focus attention upon the important influences of host-tumor relationships at a time when extensive efforts are in progress to find chemicals that will destroy cancer cells in a manner similar to the destruction of bacteria by antibiotics. The quality of the papers presented and the interest of the contributors are ample evidence that a goodly number of investigators expect that a better understanding of the cancer process, especially the reactions between it and its host, will contribute to control of the disease. The chief purpose of the conference on which this monograph is based was to explore the reactions of the host to the development and growth of malignant cells, and there are reasons for believing that the host does exert some influence in both respects. Within highly inbred strains of experimental animals there is a remarkable variation in the response of individuals to a uniform carcinogenic stimulus. Differences between the rates of growth of established tumors and their tendencies to metastasize, together with the rare occurrence of spontaneous regression, justify continued investigations of the host’s resistance to the cancer process. Probably the best procedure in attempting this summary is to formulate briefly the current status of the problem and to review the progress reported in these pages. I can think of no better place to begin than with the classic review by Woglom’ published in 1929. This review dealt chiefly with immunity to transplantable tumors, but Woglom’s presentation of the problem was such that it serves our purpose admirably. I t summarized progress during the first twenty-five years of this aspect of cancer research; immunity to cancer has been studied for about fifty years. It can therefore be used as a framework for this summary and to reveal the progress achieved during the intervening years. Woglom discussed the problem under the two general headings of natural and acquired immunity. This approach was for the sake of convenience, because he considered the two types of immunity as differing only in degree.