Inborn Errors of Metabolism in Humans

regulation of these genes, then, are thought to be the common mechanism in tumorigenesis. Whereas physicians of antiquity saw cancer as a single disease which manifested itself in various organs, in more recent times cancer had been thought of as hundreds of separate diseases; with the current understanding of oncogenes, there is again the view of a strong common thread. In September 1982, many of the leading scientists in tumor cell biology and virology gathered at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute for a workshop whose proceedings are contained in this volume. An excellent introduction by co-editor Timothy E. O'Connor provides both a good background for those less familiar with the field, and an excellent overview of the techniques and approaches discussed in the symposium. The first three sections deal with the structure and function of oncogenes in both retroviruses and host cells. These are followed by three papers on protein products of oncogenes. With the tremendous growth in information on oncogenes at the nucleic acid level, discussion of the proteins for which these genes code is often neglected; it is, after all, the protein product which is directly responsible for the transformed phenotype. The section following considers the alluring "clinical potential" of the subtitle. These papers deal largely with differentiation antigens on tumor cells and their association with specific oncogenes and with studies on the human T-cell leukemia virus. The final section is a round-table discussion, with many of the participants adding to the formal presentations. As is frequently the case, many interesting points are brought up in this format. One important note of caution mentioned by Dr. Henry Kaplan concerns the use of the NIH/3T3 transfection assay (described by Weinberg [2]). These NIH/3T3 fibroblasts can be transfected with a variety of viral and host oncogenes, to yield transformed foci. Much has been learned from these experiments, yet it must be remembered that these fibroblasts are immortal, and are themselves far from normal. Thus, such experiments must be interpreted with this caveat in mind. A number of other approaches to transfection assays are being developed (e.g., Blair et al., in the present symposium), to try to circumvent this problem. The participants in this workshop represent the leaders in tumor molecular biology research (with a few notable absences). This volume provides an outstanding synopsis of work in this field; brought to press quickly, it is still largely up-to-date in a rapidly moving area. It is excellent reading for anyone in the field and serves to remind one that the molecular biology of tumor cells is, in fact, extraordinarily exciting.