Chromosomes and Cancer Edited by James German (review)

Abstract

hypothesis, the author's work with chloroplast lipid membranes, effects of uncouples , excitability with excitability-inducing material and Alamethicin, etc. The chapter continues with an extensive coverage of the author's and others' work with carotenoid black lipid films and their possible relevance to retinal rod photoreceptor membranes. The chapter finishes with a very brief description of the lipid vesicles as another model membrane system introduced by Bangham and an equally brief account of speculations on the importance of lipid bilayers on the origin of life. The final chapter presents a full description of the experimental methods in black lipid film work. It is a detailed account of the author's and others' practical experience and accumulated technical wisdom in dealing with such a temperamental system. It is probably one of the most useful parts of the book for readers who contemplate entering the field. In summary, Tien's book has many good qualities and will be particularly useful to investigators in both biologically and physicochemically oriented fields who are interested in using black lipid films as a new experimental tool. Its deficiencies relate to the lack ofreferences to recent work, particularly important for a fast-moving field such as membranes, and also the lack of coverage of studies with phospholipid bilayer membranes in suspension (vesicles, liquid crystals), which provide a model system of ever-increasing importance for the understanding of biological membranes. In spite of the above reservations, Tien's book is a welcome addition to the membrane literature, as a reference source on black lipid films. Demetrios Papahadjopoulos Roswell Park Memorial Institute Buffalo, New York Chromosomes and Cancer. Edited by James German. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974. Pp. 756. $35.00. Sixty years after the publication of Boveri's book On the Problem ofthe Origin of Malignant Tumors, which probably constituted the first concerted, though preponderantly theoretical, effort at explaining the possible role ofchromosomes in cancer causation, we are still considerably in the dark regarding this area. I suppose this facet ofoncogenesis, that is, the role ofvuible chromosomal changes in causing cancer, will not be settled until the etiologies of various cancers are firmly established. Thus, the editor of this volume states in the introduction, somewhat castigatingly, that an "easy way out" for many is to adopt the view that chromosomal changes are unimportant in the inception ofcancer. This appears to reflect the continuing controversy existing in this field. Furthermore, in the chapter on "The Biology of Cancer" Burnet finds that little needs to be altered on this subject from what he wrote in a review 17 years ago. These two examples illustrate the painfully slow progress, despite the enormous amount of experimental work and very large number of publications on the subject, in our understanding of the changes in the genome directly responsible for the onset of cancer. This book contains over two dozen chapters written by well-recognized auPerspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1975 | 577 thorities in their fields, only about one-third of whom, incidentally, are American . In keeping with the editor's concept of the book, the subject matter of the various chapters and their organization appear to be slightly eclectic. Nevertheless , each chapter presents a definitive evaluation of an area related to cancer. Particularly informative are the following chapters: Ohno on "Aneuploidy as a Possible Means Employed by Malignant Cells to Express Recessive Phenotypes"; Comings on "What is a Chromosome Break?"; Harnden on "Viruses, Chromosomes , and Tumors: The Interaction between Viruses and Chromosomes"; Makino on "Cytogenetics of Canine Venereal Tumors: Worldwide Distribution and -a Common Karyotype"; Mark on "Chromosome Patterns in Benign and Malignant Tumors in the Human Nervous System"; and Mitelman on "The Rous Sarcoma Virus Story: Cytogenetics ofTumors Induced by RSV." Chromosome breakage and other syndromes with a predisposition to a higher incidence of cancer, conditions of special interest to the editor, are covered in the two chapters by German and Harnden. Even though evidence strongly points to the clonal evolution of cancer and leukemia (see the chapter by DeGrouchy on "Clonal Evolution in the Myeloid Leukemias")—a concept, by the way, apparently alluded to by Boveri (see the chapter by Wolfon "Theodor Boveri and His Book On the Problem...