Tobacco Documents Online

•U1C) / 9 9 CT'R HN 001046

REPORT oJthe SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR CLARF.tVCE COOK LITTI.E, Se.D. Ch.iren.n, SeientiGc Adviaory Board Ju1y 1, 1956 • June 30, 1957 TOBACCO INDUSTRY RESEARCH COMMITFEE 150 East 42nd Street, New York 17, N. Y. CTI- I I CTR HN 001047

SCIEN'TIFIC ADVISORI' BOARD to the Tobacco Industry Research Committee CLARENCE COOK LITTL.E, ScD., LLD., LtTr. D. Chairnsan, Saentl6c Advisory Board Saieruihc Director, Tobacco lndustry Reaearch Committee Dimtor Emeritus, Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratocy Bar Harbor, Maine McKEEN CATTELL, Pet.D., M.D. Professor of Pharmacology Cornell Univeniry Medical College New York, N. Y. JULIUS H. COMROE, Jtt., M.D. Director, Cardiovascular Reuarch Institute University of California Medical Center San Francisco, California LEON 0. JACOBSON, M.D. Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Director, Argonne Cancer Research Hospital Chicago, Illinois PAUL KOTIN, M.D. Associate Professor of Pathology University of Southern California School of Medicine Los Angeles, California KENNETH MERRILL LYNCH, M.D., Sc.D., LL.D. President, Dean of Faculty and Professor of Pathology Medical College of South Carolina Charleston, South Carolina STANLEY P. REIMANN, M.D., Sc.D. Scientific Director Emeritus, The Institute for Cancer Res arch Director Emeritus, The Lankenau Hospital Research Institute Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WILLIAM F. RIENHOfF, JR., M.D. Associate Professor of Surgery Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltiritore, Maryland EDWIN B. WILSON, PH.D., LL.D. Professor Emeritus of Vital Statisrics Harvard University Cambridge, Musachusetts ROBERT C. HOCKETT, PH.D. Associate Scientific Director CTtt: / 101 CTR- HN 001048

Organization and Policy The Tobacco Industry Research Committee is the sponsoring agency of a research program into questions of tobacco use and health. It was organized in early 1934 by representatives of tobacco manufacturers. growen and warehousemen. The Committee itself neither operates am research facility nor has any determination in the scientific program other than making available necessary funds. The Scientific Advisory Board to the Tobacco Industry Research Committee has full responsibility for research policy and programminF. This Board consists of nine independent scientists, doctors and educators who maintain their respective institutional affiliations. The chairman also serves as Scientific Director of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. The Scientific Advisory Board does not itself engage in research for the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. All research money is granted upon recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Board to qualified independent investigators working in estab- lished medical schools, universities and other research institutions. Recipients of Tobacco Industry Research Committee grants are assured complete scientific freedom in conducting their investigatiotts and reporting the results of their researcb in the accepted acientific tmanner through medical and scientific journals and societies. The investiptors receiving gnnts from the Committee are alone responsibk for publishing or reporting their research results. I C T-:V/ 102 , i CTR HN 001049

Summary During the 32 months ended June 30, 1957, the Sciatti5c Advisory Board approved 52 grartts-sn-aid, including renewals, totaling $550,000. lncluded Is $35,000 for scholarships to medical school students for saedieal research work in any field of their choosing. One scbolarship is oQered to each of the nation's accredited medical schools to eooourage mwdical research activities. Since the start of the arant-in-aid research program in the 19S4-SS fiscal year, the Scientific Advisory Board through )une 30, 1957, has allocated $1,715,200 in specific projects to 67 investigators in 52 of the nation's leading univenities, hospitals and ttsearsh institutions. During this same period, the Tobacco Industry Research Committee has appropriated funds amounting to $2,200,000 for research granu, in- cluding a supplementary 5200,000 appropriation requested by the Scientific Advisory Board in the 1956-57 fiscal yeu to meet sperial needs for new grants. DIRECTION OF RESEARCH Primary attention has been given to developing research projecu re- lating to cancer and heart ailmenu, since tobacco use is one of many factors of modern-day life being generally investigated in the study of these diseases. Progress of medical research is slow and painstaking. Many promising avenues must be followed before finding one that opens the way to new and useful knowledge. No known formula will quickly work out the simple answer to human health problems. Advances are made by difficult stages, somewhat as one would cut his way through jungle undergrowth. Sound medical and experimental knowledge of tobacco use is rela- tively limited, at times eontradictory, and often conjectural rather than factual. Too little is known about many factors, including why people smoke or what kind of people become particulary heavy smokers. (Pages 10-11, 16-18, 29-30.) ON CANCER RESEARCH The problem of causation of any type of cuneer is complex and difficult to analyze. All research on this so-called oonstitutional disease is, and must be, painstaking and time-cornsuming. 'Ibere is not known today any simple or quick way to answer the question of .vbetlter any one factor has a role in causing human lung cancer. (Pages 12-13.) S CTTV. / 103 CTR HN 00105-0

Despite all the attention pvea to amoking as an aocuaed factor in btsman lung cancer, no one has established tbat ciprette arnoke, or any one of its known oonstiaseau, is ancer-pusiag to man. NeMatbeleas, ft was rocosairsd as desirable to enoouraie .earcb for possible subsunoes in tobaoco smoke that mqht in aome way be anoa-casuiqg. Mirsul t+e<tt have been contradictory and ambijtsous In Indicating wbetber concentrated smoke condensates produced under normal combustion oonditions can in- duce skin cancer in experimental aainsals. ln any case, it Is known that animal tests are not dirr.ctly applicable to aen. Tbis situation led to con- sideration of the general problem of developing better ways to test any substances that might be suspected of having a cancer-inducing effect on man, and to measure the relative potencies of auch substances. Encourage- ment and support have been given to tissue culture techniques that may permit the growing of living lung tissues where they can be submitted to challenges and observed directly. (Pages 11-13. 20-26.) Similarly, little has been known concerning changes that may Occur in the lungs of human beings in the normal course of their lives. A larFe- scale pilot investigation was tindertaken, with preliminary results indicating that lung tissues in large petroenuges of people of all ages, but especialh2S years and older, show observable deviations from normal that are not obviously related to any specific environmental or occupational factors. (Pages 27-29.) O'1 IiEART RESEARCH Although some observations have been made in the past on the effects of smoking, and especially of nicotine, on the cardiovascular system. it has been recognized that much remains unknown and that many earlicr reports are contradictory. Preliminary results of new research indicate that some previously held concepts concerning the effects of tobacco on the . cardiovascular system were over-simplifted, or do not apply Eerterallx (Pages 26-27. ) Research is continuing not only on specific effects of smoking on peripheral blood vessels and coronary Dow, in human tests as weU as with laboratory animals, but also on whole population groups, where mam factors, incuding heredity, diet, recreation and work habits, in addition to smoking, are being considered in relation to incidcooe of cardiovascular diseases. ON SMOKING TYPES Considerable attention has been given to ways of carrying out atudies on population groups to determine whether then are any prycho-pfisi- 6 t I 1TZ., / '104 CTR HN 0010531

, ological dideiraces observable between exoeptional7y heavy aaotecs .usd moderate tmoken or non-smokers. (Pages f6-18, 29-30.) Several studies of populations .rere found atheady trnda way .6at could be galarged to include apeci5c study of smoking histaciea d dse tnd;viduals involved. Out of one project came a repon, perhaps the frrat based on scientific ttudy, showing a sigaificant rise in body weight for wen wbo stopped smoking as compared with a control grotrp of soec Mbo continued to smoke. (Page 4I.) OTHER AREAS OF RESEARCH Some arants have been approved in certain other areas of interest relating to tobacco use. Investigations are being supported eonoerniag oral tissues, which may lead to revised concepts concerning the rate of tissue maintenance processes in aging people. Studies on the effects of smoking in relation to gastric functions have been completed with reports showing that cigarette smoking by patienu with duodenal ulcer did not produce signi6cant changes in gastric secretions. Similar or related work is being continued. Projects also have been initiated into such matters as the ooo- stituenu of tobacco leaf and the chemistry of tobacco smoke. (Page 38.) ? CTR MN 001052

The Research Approach Tbe public's interest in the relation of tobaoco aae to haman 6ealth is ssaturalty great. It is oertain to remain so. Broad and tepedfie aowaatioos sad daims of harmful effects from tobaooo have been made, nd tbe in- aomxtoeas or oormtness of such statements asvst be proved, so matter bow bong or bow dafficult the effort may be. In the active and continuing discussioos about tobacco use and health, there aeems to be nearly complete agreement among scientistc on only one point: The need for much more intensive rezeucb into the aubject. To this need, the Scientific Advisory Board to the Tobacco Industry Research Committee is devoting its efforts. Tlte Board has retpouttbllity for advancing and encouraging to the limits of its resources scientific research into all phases of tobacco use and bealth and for making grants- in-aid to qualified research scientists from funds made available by the Coenmittee. This 1957 Report of the Scientific Director provides an opportua'sty to diacuss in some detail the progress of the research program which ac- tually got under way late in 1954. Starting in 1954 with nothing except the mandate to grant funds, with no atrings attached, to independent scientists, the research program hu through June 30, 1957, activated researcb projects totaling $1,715.200 in the field of tobaooo and bearih. Of this amount, $SS0,000 was for 52 separate grants-in-aid approved in the 12 months ended June 30, 1957. Many of these were, of course, re- newals of projects previously started, indicating the time-consuming nature of this type of research. The year covered by this report also aaw iadepeadent publiation by investigators of many papers reporting work which was supported, at kast in part, with grants from the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. Abstracts of these published papers, as approved by the authors, are in- cluded later in this report. APPROACH TO RESEARCH PROBLEMS '[be nine scientists who oomprise the Seieetific Advisory Boasd have bad complete freedom in planning, selecting and developing phases of experimental research. They have pooled their knowledge twd their ex- perience and their disciplines 'to develop the research prognm. They have also consulted frequently with many iodepeedeat scientific colleagues, both individually and in oonferences. 8 . ^.TI.' I I CTR HN 001053

0 Tbey have Eiven first attention to those areas w4tkh .n pt tly of mott ooeroern to medical science as well as 'to the geaeral public-tbe queations melating to ancer, and specifically lung caaoer, assd to bean diseue. Members of the Board take the paeral position t3tat definitive ooo- clusions or predictions of individual risks are unwarranted by the preaeat imperiea state of knowledge in the ooeapkx field of lunt ee noer ausation. In regard to heart disease, they take a aimiiarly opea-eniaded attittsde toward ausation. consistent with the expressed positions of such otpaiza- tions as the American Heart Atsociation and the National Heart Institute. The program of the Scientific Advisory Board is one of basic and unbiased raearch. It is not planned with a preoonceived purpose of proving tobacco innocent or guilty in its effects on human health. Its purpose is solely to obtain new information and to advance human knowledge in every possible phase of the tobacco and health relationship. There is for any prtilCram a surrounding framework or background of problems and of unanswered questions. These questions should be con- stantly borne in mind until they are adequately answered. It is often very easy to forjet, ignore or bypass unsolved phases of a problem while in hot pursuit of some particularly alluring theory or hypothesis. It is, however, the duty of experimental scientists to maintain balance in this type of situation and to distribute emphasis and evaluation wisely and fairly in relationship to the whole problem or field involved. SC[E>\7TF7C, SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS Before presenting the factual information, therefore, it.vW be desirable to discuss briefly some of the general factors that surround and infiuence any broad and continuing program of researcb in this interesting and chaUenging field of tobacco use and health. Some of these factors are wholly biolopic. They deal with the oom- plexities that are inherent in observing and analyzing a habit with many variables in its relationship to diseases that ari:e quietly and subtly within the body and that continue to be a part of the body, disturbing, tmbalaneiag and perhaps destroying its normal function and its survival. Other factors are :ociobaic. These involve, among other things, the attitudes tuad reactions of individuals of diftemtt types to ttmokir4, one of the most .vidapread and accepted human customs that has developed as a pan of our way of Ufe for more than three anturies. It is desirable to keep the two sorts of factors clearly distinct iat our selection and evaluation of specific research problems that demand our best efforts. These problems are sufficiently sobering and impsessive in their 9 1, CT 4= 1 107 CTR MIN 0010E54 I V

I I own right, but they become materially bftndfied and ooatnaed wbea tbae fs a Hat and complete acaptana of an iooompleu deSee of ataalyais of their elements, or when sssixed suodards are empbyed wbich obaaure their otigias assd ootnponent paru. Such being the case, the Scientific Adrjsory Board wW oontisiue to maintain an open-minded approach that woourayes new methods of in- vestigatioa, t+eoogaisa the long-time factor in obtailiicg direct esperiwastal evidence in this field, and refuses to aubraibe to, or endorse as casctusive, incomplete or restricted evidence, even though pressured to do so. The need of protecting the public by adherence to a oonservative, scientific attitude wiU, we hope, become evident as this Report progrrsses. THE CUSTOM OF SMOKING Deep-rooted and widespread human customs have aome ttason or reasons for their adoption and continuation. This is undoubtedly true of smoking. It may be unnecessary or impossible to discover or define all of the underlying motives involved, but it is necessary to attempt to detarmine and to evaluate any influences for good or evil which our habits may have on health and weU-being. There an, fortunately, some helpful principles to guide us in such efforts. Because the reactions of individual human beings to any habit vary through a wide and often unpredictable range, certain inherent lim}tstions in the data and restrictions in interpretation must be considered before applying and extending any conclusions derived from statistical studies on limited population groups. Sweeping generalizations as to the sociological application of find'utgs or as to proposals to limit, restrict or eliminate widespread human babits are usually, if not always, unwise and ineffective. They are apt to arottse resentment and create temptation to deceive or to circumvent regttlations. The right of self-determination is a very strong trait in the American public. It has characterized our behavior since the days of our origin as a nation, and it will continue to do to. TASK OF GETT[hG SOiANM DATA Recognizing this, the efforts of the Scientific Advisory Board have been and will continue to be directed toward encouraging seientists to acquire and publish sufficient data to help provide a basis for sound and voluntary decision by the intelligent individual layman as to what his attitude toward tobacco use should be. It will take a long time and much creative thiaking to devise and to carry out the experiments on which complete answen to the multitude of 10 CT R= 1 108 CTR MN 001055