Main description:

In the past five years, a surprising and intense resurgence in interest in vitamins and other micronutrients and their role in health and dis ease has occurred. The recognition has emerged that vitamins not only are essential for life *in that severe nutritional deficiencies occur in their absence, but that these compounds may also serve as natural inhibitors of cancer. Synthetic alterations of the basic vitamin A mole cule have also resulted in the production of compounds that are more potent as anticancer agents than the natural substance and may have substantial therapeutic activity as well. Whether other vita mins can be changed or altered to produce a better anticancer effect than the native compound has been little explored to date, but should be a fruitful pursuit for future study. In our concluding remarks to the First International Conference in 1982, we speculated that rapid advances in our understanding of vi tamins would occur in the next few years and that large-scale inter vention trials of vitamins as preventive agents in defined human pop ulations would be started. This anticipated generation of data on vitamins and their interactions has proceeded rapidly and the impor tance of interactions between vitamins and other micronutrients in the prevention setting has become better appreciated. Currently, more than 25 intervention trials with a variety of target populations using vitamins and other micronutrients have been started, but it re mains too early for meaningful analysis of the results to date.

Contents:

Basic Experimental Approaches.- Studies on the Mechanism of the Antiproliferative Action of Retinoids Using Retinoid-Resistant Melanoma Cell Mutants.- Retinoids, Folyamines, and Teratocarcinoma Differentiation.- Biochemical Mechanism of Inhibition of Fhorbol Ester-Induced Mouse Epidermal Ornithine Decarboxylase by Retinoic Acid.- The Effects of Antioxidants on the Induction of Malignant Transformation In Vitro.- Free Radicals, Dietary Antioxidants, and Mechanisms in Cancer Prevention; In Vitro Studies.- Ascorbate Effects on Endomembrane Electron Transport and Membrane Flux.- Modification of Tumor Cell Response In Vitro by Vitamin E.- Chemoprevention (Preclinical).- Nutrients and Other Risk Factors Associated With Cancer.- Supplemental Carotenoids Prevent Skin Cancer by Benzo(a)Pyrene, Breast Cancer by Puva, and Gastric Cancer by MNNG.- Retinoids as Chemopreventive Agents: Alone and in Combination.- Dietary Cholesterol and Colon Tumorigenesis Induced by 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine or N-Methyl-N-Nitrosourea in Rats.- Effects of Vitamin E on the Immune System.- Mechanism and Prevention of Anticancer Agent-Induced Cancer; Interactions of Vitamin E and Daunorubicin.- Chemoprevention (Human).- Methodological Issues.- A New HPLC Method for the Simultaneous Analysis of Plasma Retinol, Tocopherols, and Carotenoids and Its Application in Cancer Epidemology.- Clinical Toxicology Pharmacokinetics of 13-cis-Retinoic Acid Administered Chronically at Low Doses Expected for Cancer Chemoprevention Trials.- Changing the Public's Health Behaviors by Diet and Chemopreventive Interventions.- Design and Compliance Considerations of Dietary Intervention Trials.- Methodologie Issues in Clinical Trials.- Prevention Trials.- Diet and Cancer Prevention Update on National Cancer Institute Initiative.- The Chemoprevention Program of the National Cancer Institute.- Nutrition Intervention Studies of the Esophageal Cancer in Linxian, China.- Chemoprevention Studies in Familial Polyposis.- Chemoprevention of Lung Cancer With Retinol/Beta-Carotene.- Highlights of Methodological Approaches: A Case-Control Study of Diet and Breast Cancer.- Treatment.- Ascorbic Acid and Cancer.- The Role of Vitamin C in Tumor Therapy (Human).- Vitamin B6 Status and Administration During Radiation Therapy.- Retinoids and Vitamin E: Modulators of Immune Functions and Cancer Resistance.- Clinical Trials and In Vitro Studies of 13-cis-Retinoic Acid in the Myelodysplasia Syndrome.- Experience With Retinoids as Prevention and Treatment for Human Cancers.