Ness Motley Documents
Chemical Compounds as Carcinogenic Agents
Fields
- Type
- Article
- Publication Name
- The American Journal of Cancer, Vol. XXIX, No. 2
- Original File
- TobDocs1
- Named Person
- Cook
- Haselwood
- Wuland
- Dane
- Schlichting
- Fieser
- Newman
- Harvard
- Dobrovolskaia-Zavadskaia
- Ball
- Samuels
- Reuterwall
- Hieger
- Roffo
- Sobotka
- Block
- Koletsky
- Zamechik
- Widmark
- Jacobi
- Haselwood
- Author
- Cook, J.W.
- Haselewood, A.D.
- Hewett, C.L.
- Hieger, I.
- Kennaway, E.L.
- Mayneord, W.V.
- Haselewood, A.D.
- Characteristic
- no bates#
- Site
- Budd Larner (CAW)
Document Images
THE AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF CANCER
A Continuation of The Journal of Cancer Research
VOLUME XXIX FEBRUARY, 1937
I~UMBER 2
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
J. W. COOK, G. A. D. HASLEWOOD, C. L..HEWETT, I. HIEGER, E. L. KENNAWAY, Am)
W. V. MAYNEORD
(From The Royal Cancer Hospital (Free), London)
CHEMICAL RELATIONSHIPS
Group I: Cholanthrene Derivatives
The carcinogenic compounds of the cholanthrene group merit separate
consideration on account of their chemical relationship to the cholane (bile
acid) class of naturally occurring substances. They are, however, of essen-
tially the same .type as the benzanthracene derivatives (see p. 222).
Methyicholanthrene was prepared independently by Wieland and Dane
(125) and by Cook and Haslewood (35) by dehydrogenation of dehydro-
norcholene, a pentacyclic hydrocarbon obtained in 1925 by Wieland and
Schlichting (126) from the bile acid, deoxycholic acid, by simple chemical
transformations. The molecular structure of methylcholanthrene was proved
by its degradation by Cook and Haslewood (36) to 5:6-dimethyl-l:2-benz-
anthraquinone, identical with a specimen prepared synthetically by a method
which established its constitution. The synthesis of methylcholanthrene by
Fieser and Seligrnan (51) is in complete harmony with this structure, and the
conversion of cholic acid into methylcholanthrene has been reported by Fieser
and Newman (48). Cholic acid and deoxycholic acid are the two principal
acids of human bile, so that. in these reactions we have a comparatively simple
chemical transformation of important constituents of the human body into a
cancer-producing hydrocarbon related in structure to those already known.
The interest of these relationships needs no further emphasis. So far it has
not been possible to secure evidence that the production in the body of methyl-
cholanthrene or a related compound is an Ketiological factor in human cancer.
The parent, pentacyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, cholanthrene, has also been
synthesised, both in London and at Harvard (38, 53). The biological testing
of cholanthrene and methylcholanthrene has shown that these two hydrocar-
a Presented before the Second International Cancer Congress, Brussels, September 1936.
219
PLAINTIFF'S
EXHIBIT

CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
231
and L. R. 10) of the rat, and three tumours (sarcoma M4 and M154 and
carcinoma 63) of the mouse---and found in all cases an inhibitory effect.
The field of these investigations is certainly not yet exhausted. Photo-
chemical changes are known to play a part in some forms of cancer, as xero-
derma pigmentosum, and the remarkable work of Roffo (112) on cancer of
the skin in whit~ rats exposed to sunlight is of interest in this connection.
BostriJm (14) has described experiments suggesting that liver tissue from
mice receiving subcutaneous injections of l:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene, sus-
pended in agar solution, may show a transient increase in respiration on
addition of this hydrocarbon, but E. and M. Boyland have not found such an
effect when no protective colloid was used.
Reuterwall (111) has described and figured a flattening of an olive oil-
serum interface when 1:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene was dissolved in the oil; this
change may be observed when as little as 0.02 per cent of the hydrocarbon is
present. Anthracene (0.5 per cent) and phenanthrene (1 per cent) had no
such effect. Hieger (64) examined the surface tension between drops of
serum and solutions in olive oil of pyrene or of 3:4-benzpyrene and could
find no difference in effect between the two hydrocarbons, but this form of
experiment does not allow any long interval for the attainment of equilibrium.
II. Factors Affecting Carcinogenesis
1. Genetic Factors: Andervont ( 1, 2) injected 1:2: 5: 6-dibenzanthracene
in lard subcutaneously in mice of 5 pure strains from the Roscoe B. Jackson
Memorial Laboratory, having a known incidence of spontaneous mammary
carcinoma (namely strains A, CsH and D of high incidence, and strains CBA
and M "Leaden" of low incidence), and in albino stock mice not of pure
strain. Sarcomas appeared most rapidly in C.,H, and less rapidly in the two
low-incidence strains than in any of the three high-incidence strains. "At the
end of the 18th week, 80 per cent of the C3H mice, 25 per cent of the A mice,
and none of the CBA animals had developed tumours . . . tumours began to
appear in the CBA strain just as a tumour developed in the last of the C3H
mice." These sarcomas produced in.pure strain mice grew on transplantation
only in mice of the strain in which the primary tumour arose.
Branch (20), in a single experiment upon a small number of mice, found
that the production of epithelial tumours by application of 1:2:5:6-dibenz-
anthracene to the skin was less in a strain (A) having a high incidence of
mammary cancer than in one (C57) having a very low incidence, while the
yield of sarcomas from subcutaneous injection of this compound was the same
in the two strains. Morton, Branch and Clapp (91) report the production
of epithelioma of the skin by tetrapbenylmethane in strain C57 but not in
strain A.
Dobrovolskaia-Zavadskaia (43) found that mice of six or more strains
produced sarcomas as a result of subcutaneous injection of 1:2:5:6-dibenz-
anthracene, and that in these various strains there was no exact proportion be-
tween the susceptibility to this agent and the number of spontaneous mam-
mary carcinomas appearing in the females.
2. Effect o] the Pituitary: Ball and Samuels (4) injected 1:2:5:6-dibenz-

THE AMERICAN
-JOURNAL OF CANCER
Editor
FRANCIS CARTER WOOD
~olumhia ~[nifie~iil~, ~e~v ~o~k
Volume XXXIX
The Official Organ of
The American Association for Cancer Research
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY
Col~'lght. 1940, b~ the D¢lmrtm~nt of C~ncer R~search
of Columbia University/

urine of a
is precipi-
floride are
on occurs.
boiling for
,t~nt prep-
s. Calcu-
t nitrogen~
~horus and
compound.
~t negative
;howed an
a mixture
advanced
described.
also in the
han in the
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
SEco~ro Str~PLE~rENTARY I~PORT: LITERATUR~ OF 1938 ANn 1939
J. W. COOK x~m E. L. KENNAWAY
(From the Royal Cancer Hospital (Free), London, and the University o! Glasgow)
In two previous articles 1 a review was given of the literature, dealing with
the carcinogenic properties of pure chemical compounds, published between
the date of the First International Cancer Congress, in 1933, and the end of
1937. The present report summarises the literature of 1938 and 1939.
In order that the three reviews shall be as complete as possible, there is
appended to the Bibliography in the present communication a list of references
to the more important original papers on carcinogenic chemical compounds
published prior to the period covered by the first article.
Fieser (518) has classified and correlated the data obtained in several
laboratories concerned with the biological testing of polycyclic aromatic hydro-
carbons and their derivatives. No summary could do justice to his excellent
article, and the reader is referred to the original, but an indication may be
given of its scope, and comment made on certain features. The paper is
mainly concerned with the structural relationships between the various car-
cinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbons, with an attempt to assess their relative
potencies as accurately as the data warrant? The influence of certain variable
factors (e.g., the physical state and dose of compound administered, the age,
sex, strain, tissue, and species of the animal selected as the test object) on the
production of tumours, is discussed in considerable detail, and we may remark,
without wishing to detract from the value of Fieser's exhaustive analysis, that
greater prominence might have been given to the uncertainties inherent in
any attempt to give generalised quantitative expression to such influences)
Attention is also drawn to a useful section of Fieser's article giving com-
mercial sources of some of the carcinogenic hydrocarbons, with references and
notes on their preparation and purification. The relation between molecular
structure and carcinogenic activity is discussed at length, and the summarising
tables provide a convenient source of reference to compounds tested and the
results obtained with the groups selected for treatment, which comprise mainly
substances related to 1:2-benzanthracene.
In a discussion of the results obtained in mice with two different test pro-
x Cook, J. W., Haslewood, G. A. D., Hewett, C. L., Hieger, I., Kennaway, E. L., and Mayneord,
W. V.: Am. J. Cancer 29: 219, 1937; Cook, J. W., and Kennaway, E. L.: Ibid. 33: 50, 1935.
~ A classification of polycyclic" compounds according to their carcinogenic potency, on the
basis of data obtained in tests carried out in this Institute, was independently worked out by
Iball (~92), whose paper was submitted for publication before the appearance of Fieser'$ article.
s Shear (791) rightly points out that the value for the average latent period in turnout pro-
duction is not to be considered as an invariable property inherent in the hydrocarbon, but is
merely a convenient summary of particular experiments and is valid ~nly for animals of the
strain, age, sex~ etc., of the species employed.
381

• the carcino-
, who studied
~lestanol, and
tonomolecular
:ording to the
ere 3:4-benz-
s 1'-methyl,
~henanthrene,
ne (6-methyl-
). Curiously
.fferent group
investigation
.at the forces
may be suffi-
influence the
ew is further
uggest an ex-
,ons and their
~d interaction
~ms was stud-
tantity of the
:hange in sur-
..as the hydro-
ato extremely
a parallel is
.ctivity of the
Lic activity, of
-electrons and
riew thai car-
these valency
characterised
and whereas
~ two. It is
tinguished by
that this high
an interpreta-
0-5 : 10-acean-
2-methyl-3 : 4-
nzanthracene.
2:3:4-dibenz-
:ene, and also
,ith 1:2:5:6-
oxygen is ex-
e conceptions
ning electron-
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
4O3
densities it is difficult to submit them to experimental test. Moreover, like
many other theoretical interpretations they are apt to be more successful in
explaining known phenomena than in predicting new ones. If the high elec-
tron-density were the chief consideration in determihing carcinogenic activity,
it is a little difficult to see why different alkyl groups in the same position (e.g.
position 10 of the l:2-benzanthracene molecule) should have such widely
differing effects on carcinogenic activity. Also, carcinogenic inertness is not
a universal attribute of compounds with functional oxygen groups, as there
are now known (see p. 401) compounds of this class with very pronounced
carcinogenic activity.
In a later paper (785) Schmidt has extended his speculations and has at-
tempted a correlation of various theories of cancer with his views on the high
B-electron-density of carcinogenic hydrocarbons.
In the course of a comprehensive study of the absorption spectra of organic
compounds in concentrated sulphuric acid solution Bandow (409, 410) has
measured the spectra of 3:4: 5:6-dibenzacridine,. Browning's "styryl 430,"
4'-amino-2 :Y-azotoluene, and a number of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic
polycyclic hydrocarbons. It was found, for example, that in the case of
3:4:5:6-dibenzacridine the detailed structure of the spectrum shown in alco-
holic solution is lost when the measurements are made in concentrated sul-
phuric acid, and there is also a shift of the bands towards the region of longer
wavelength. As salt formation would occur in sulphuric acid solution, such
changes are to be expected.
Sobotka and Bloch (802) failed to obtain either chemical or biological
evidence for the presence of carcinogenic hydrocarbons in the llpoid extracts
of 2,100 litres of pooled urine from cancer patients.
Considerable interest attaches to a statement made by Winterstein (846).
in a review article, to the effect that he has isolated from 500,000 litres of
pregnant mares' urine $ grams of a phenolic substance, C1,HloO~, which has
the same absorption and fluorescence spectra as carcinogenic compounds.
M. R. Lewis (640) reported that sulphanilamide is not carcinogenic to
mice. This was confirmed by Zamecnik and Koletsky (855), who found that
repeated subcutaneous injections Of sulphanilamide and Prontosil Soluble into
mice during a year failed to produce turnouts.
In recent years much attention has been devoted to the possible presence
in food of carcinogenic substances as an aetiological factor in human cancer,
but .although some observations of considerable interest have been made there
is as yet no convincing evidence that any specific dietary constituent is impli-
cated in this connection. Nevertheless, in an extensive series of publications
A. H. Roffo has described the production of tumours by food materials sub-
jected to various treatments, and claims that he has identified the substances
responsible for these tumours. In the main these identifications are unsup-
ported by the evidence put forward, but in view of the importance of the
subject, and of the plausibility of many of Roffo's speculations it may be well
to summarise the present position.
The extensive experimental work of Roffo on the production of skin cancer
in rats by prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light has been confirmed inde-
pendently, as has his observation that the cholesterol content of the skin is

404 j.w. COOK AND E. L. KENNAWAY
inc~reased locally on exposure to ultraviolet light. But it is unjustifiable to
conclude from this that the increase in cholesterol concentration is associated
with tumour production, as has been pointed out by Bergmann, Staveley,
Strong and Smith (428), who have been unable to obtain skin tumours in
mice with irradiated cholesterol.
Roffo (762) obtained tumours of the stomach (adenocarcinoma) and of
the liver (sarcoma) in many rats which received irradiated cholesterol with
their food, and attributed this to the carcinogenic action of a photochemical
oxidation product of cholesterol to which is attributed on quite insufficient
grounds the formula C~IH,eO~ (compare Roffo and Correa, 772). It is sug-
gested that similar oxidation is brought about by heating cholesterol. Roffo
and Corre.a (773) claim to have demonstrated the presence of anthracene and
phenanthrene in the products of distillation of irradiated cholesterol, thereby
establishing a link with the carcinogenic hydrocarbons. The meagre spectro-
scopic evidence advanced in support of this claim is insufficient. The tar
obtained from cholesterol by irradiation and heat, under vaguely defined
conditions, was found by Roffo (766, 771) to give tumours in rats when added
to the food.
According to Roffo the same type of oxidation which takes place when
cholesterol is irradiated is aiso brought about in the cholesterol of fats when
these are heated as in cooking. In a recent paper (768; compare 764) he
describes the production of numerous malignant and non-malignant tumours
of the alimentary tract in rats which received with their food a quantity of
fat (lard, mutton fat, veai fat, olive oil) which had been heated at about
350° C. for thirty minutes. These results are interpreted as due to oxidation
by heat of the cholesterol in the fats to a carcinogenic "oxycholesterol."
Again, the evidence in support of this interpretation is wholly inadequate.
It consists in showing that the oxygen content of the fat is slightly increased
by heating for an hour at 350°, that the cholesterol (estimated by digitonin
precipitation) is destroyed in the process, and that the ultraviolet absorption
increases in the region of the phenanthrene absorption bands. It is not sur-
prising that the combined cholesterol in the fat is destroyed by heat. Berg-
mann and Hirshberg (426) showed that irradiated cholesteryl acetate is con-
verted by heat into A3:~-cholestadiene and this compound was also obtained
by Veldstra 1~ (827) by heating cholesteryl oleate at 300-340°. Cholesterol
is by no means the only constituent of fats likely to absorb atmospheric oxygen
at high temperatures, and a mere increase in selective absorption of light.is
of little diagnostic value for the presence of a particular type of compound.
A topic of related interest has also been investigated by Roffo, who found
(765, 770) that coffee-tar produces epitheliomas when applied to the ears of
rabbits. The tar is apparently prepared by roasting the coffee at 200-250°,
although the nature of the subsequent treatment is not quite clear, and it is
stated that only a minimal quantity of the carcinogenic material is present in
coffee as ordinarily prepared as a beverage. The carcinogenic action of the
coffee tar is attributed, again without experimental justification, to the oxida-
tion of cafesterol, the "sterol " of coffee oil, to carcinogenic hydrocarbons,
~x Veldstra states that Waterman obtained 4 papillomas Of the stomach, one of which ~howed
infiltrating properties, in a group of mice fed with A~:~-cholestadiene.
and
hyd~
I
duct
toluf
" 275~
lived
of ~
brow
one r
of' ra
paigz
propl
pyre~
relat~
fluort
U
cinog
III.
IV.
V.
VI..
VII.
VIII. '
~. '
X.
I. M~
subje(
ascor~
sues;
yeast.
solubl~
was el
The t

~tifiable to
associated
Staveley,
umours in
a) and of
terol with
:ochemical
nsufficient
It is sug-
ol. Roffo
acene and
.I, thereby
e spectro-
The tar
y defined
aen added
ace when
fats when
.~ 764) he
: turnouts
tantity of
at about
oxidation
~lesterol."
adequate.
increased
digitonin
bsorption
. not sur-
f. Berg-
te is con-
obtained
~olesterol
c oxygen
f light is
,mpound.
ho found
~ ears of
30-250°,
and it is
resent in
n of the
te oxida-
~carbons,
ich showed
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
40S
and it is claimed that the absorption spectra show bands of carcinogenic
hydrocarbons, e.g. benzpyrene.
It was found by Baumann, Rnsch, Kline, and Jacchi (418) that the pro-
duction of tumours by ultraviolet light, by 5:4-benzpyrene, by o-aminoazo-
toluene, or by the Shope papilloma virus, was not accelerated by cholesterol.
Widmark (842) has recorded experiments in which mice were painted
with alcoholic and petroleum ether extracts of (a) horse muscle treated at
275° C., (b) browned butter, and (c) roasted coffee. Controls were treated
with the unheated materials or were untreated. Of 25 female mice which
lived more than eleven months, 9 developed malignant mammary turnouts
of the adenocarcinoma type (2 in mice treated with roasted Coffee; one with
browned butter; 6 with heated muscle extracts). In 25 control animals only
one mammary cancer was observed during the observation period of 578 days.
The production of epitheliomas by application of tobacco tar to the ears
of rabbits has also been described by Roffo (763,769), who advocates a cam-
paign for the reduction of smoking, especially by women, as a measure of
prophylaxis against cancer, goffo's claim (767) to have isolated 3:4-benz-
pyrene from tobacco tar is unsupported by his experimental results, which
relate merely to a fraction which is stated to have the spectroscopic and
fluorescence characteristics of benzpyrene.
BIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Under this heading the following aspects of tumor production by the car-
cinogenic chemicals are considered in the order given:
IL
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
Mechanism of Cancer Production by Chemical Compounds, and Factors Affecting
Carcinogenesis and the Growth of Transplanted Turnouts
Action of Carcinogenic Compounds in Different Spedes and Tissues
Oestrogens in Relation to Tumours
Systemic Effects of Carcinogenic Compounds and of Turnouts
Minimum Amount of a Compound, and Mode of Administration, for Carcinogenesis
Action of Carcinogenic Compounds on Tumours
Carcinogenic Compounds and Viruses
Tumours of the Lung
Tissue Culture and Cytology
Characters and Composition of Tumours
I. Mechanism o] Cancer Production by Chemical Compounds, and Factors
Affecting Carcinogenesis and the Growth o/ Transplanted Turnouts
The abstracts in this section are arranged in relation to the following
subjects: haemolysis; light and other radiations; dietary factors; vitamin A;
ascorbic acid and glutathione; metabolism and changes undergone by com-
pounds in the tissues; the pituitary; chemotherapy; local changes in the tis-
sues; genetic and extrachromosomal factors; age; effects on planariam and
yeast.
Haemolysis: The haemolytic action on mouse red corpuscles of the water-
soluble sodium salts of the endosuccinic acids of 17 polycyclic hydrocarbons
was examined by Warren (831) in association with the work of L. D. Parsons.
The derivatives of all the five strongly carcinogenic compounds tested--

reported. Tumor
.atively large doses
vas given multiple
ignant growths de-
n.
ections of 1,2,5,6-
14 transplant gen-
a of the same agent
'umor No. 1 was a
seventh transplant
type became domi-
bowed a regression
nary tumor No. 28
;hour the 22 trans-
1 cells which divide
:livisions show ab-
.nd of the common
:hemically induced
~nown spontaneous
sue are interpreted
0ciated with tumor
l developed tumors
of the tumors was
[~ENNAWAY, E. L., AND
1055, 1938.
1936.
1936.
1937, pp. 141. Abst.
1938.
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT: LITERATURE OF 1938 AND 1939
J. W. COOK Am~ E. L. KENNAWAY
(From the RoyM Cancer Hospital (Free), London, and the University of Glasgow)
BIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
(Continued from page 428, July 1940)
II. Action o/ Carcinogenic Compounds in Different Species and Tissues
A number of reports of the action of carcinogenic compounds on human tis-
sues have appeared. Klar (601) developed a nodule on the forearm after
completion of a series of experiments with 3:4-benzpyrene. He applied a
solution of the hydrocarbon (0,25 per cent in benzol) to the skin of mice with
a paint brush and for at least part of the period wore rubber gloves. He also
conducted experiments, of which no description is given, with the powdered
hydrocarbon contained in a glass vessel. Three months after the completion
of the e.xperiments a small nodule appeared on the dorsum of the left forearm.
This was excised in May 1938 and described by Professor Htickel as a "so-
called benign calcifying epithelioma." The growth extended into the subcu-
taneous fatty tissue; the connection with the superficial epithelium is not
described nor is it evident in the two photomicrographs which illustrate the
report. The author does not state his age.
Gordonoff and Walthard (562) record the occurrence of a tumor in a labo-
ratory assistant, aged forty-two, engaged in applying methylcholanthrene (0.3
per cent in benzol) to the skin of mice. The site was in the nasolabial fold,
at a spot often touched by the patient when smoking. The microscopic ap-
pearance was that of a "still well delimited stage of an incipient squamous-
cell sarcoma."
Cottini and Mazzone (479) deliberately applied 3:4-benzpyrene (1 per
cent in benzene) to the skin, generally of the arm or thigh, of 26 patients with
various cutaneous diseases, usually daily for periods up to 120 days. The
changes observed were (1) pigmentation (" an increase in melanin in the basal
layer of the epidermis "), which was more distinct in older people and in parts
exposed to light, and (2) verrucae. The latter are described as " an accentua-
tion of the relief pattern of the skin secondary to a deepening of the sulci," but
no dimensions are given. The changes retrogressed completely within two
months after cessation of the applications. In a child aged four, suffering
from xeroderma pigmentosum with multiple squamous-cell cancers of the face,
the skin reacted to the hydrocarbon in the ordinary way, though the reaction
to ultraviolet radiation was intense. This latter effect was less in areas treated
with the hydrocarbon. Application of an ointment containing 1 per cent 3:4-
benzpyrene to one of the ulcerated cancers in this patient had at first a favour-
521

I0: II0,
O: 421,
. 1938.
cancer
• 1939.
.e biol.
1937.
e biol.
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
579
731. OWEN, S. E., WEISS, H. A., A~D P~NCE, L. H.: Science 87: 261, 1938.
732. OWEN, S. E., WEISS, H. A., ~ PSJ.NCE, L. H.: Am. J. Cancer 35: 424, 1939.
733. PAoE, R. C.: Arch. Path. 26: 800, 1938.
734. P~RSONS, L. D.: Nature 142: 480, 1938.
735. PArsoNs, L. D.: J. Path. & Bact. 47: 501, 1938.
736. PASSEy, R. D. : J. Roy. Inst. Pub. Health & Hyg. 2: 16, 1939.
737. PF.~COCK, P. R., AND BECK, S.: Brit. J. Exper. Path. 19: 315, 1938.
738. P~cocx, P. R., AND BECK, S.: Brit. J. Exper. Path. 19: 434, 1938.
739. P~zRs, J. H.: Am. J. Path. 15: 261, 1939.
740. PEISA~HOVITCH, I., EINHORN, G., AND VORONIANSmI, G.: T~sissT docladov na pervome
siezd~ oncologov, Oukrainy, Kiev, May 1938, p. II. (Read in abstract only. Index
analyt: cancerol. 13:210 (Abst. 556), 1939.)
741. P~RRY, I. H.: Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Meal. 39: 346, 1938.
742. P~RRY, I. H., AND GX~Z~rON, L. I.: Am. J. Cancer 29: 680, 1937.
743. P~.uRy, I. H., AND LOCKHY~D, M. S.: Am. J. Cancer 35: 422, 1939.
744. PIERSON, H.: Ztschr. f. Krebsforsch. 47: 1, 336, 1938.
745. PmRSON, H.: Ztschr. f. Krebsforsch. 48: 177, 1938.
746. POL~.IA, J. A.: Am. J. Cancer 32: 545, 1938.
747. POLLL% J. A.: J. Indust. Hyg. & Toxicol. 21 : 219, 1939.
748. PONDER, E.: J. Exper. Biol. 16: 38, 1939.
749. PovRs~x, Y.: Act*, Unio internat, contra cancrum 3: 31, 1938.
750. PovltS~x, Y.: Acta, Unio internat, contra cancrum 4: 719, 1939.
751. POV-RsA~, Y.: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol. 127: 364, 1938.
752. Povmt~v¢, Y.: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol. 127: 1475, 1938.
753. PROHASKA, J. vAN, BRUNSCHWIO, A., AND W~LSON, H., Arch. Surg. 38: 328, 1939.
754. RA~AC.E, G. R.: J. Chem. Soc., 1938, p. 397.
755. RA~I, B., AND Gv~a~z~., H.: Ztschr. f. Krebsforsch. 48: 355, 1939.
756. REOOIANI, M., DA~Sr, A., AND MORELLL E.: Tumori 13: 635, 1939.
757. RE,MANN, S. P., AND CHATALBASH, N.: Growth 1: 247, 1937.
758. P, EITANO, R.: Riv. real. 18: 185, 1939. (Read in abstract only. Chem. Zentralbl. 1:
903, 1940.)
759. REvoI.~EI.~, G.: Boll. $oc. ital. di biol. sper. 13: I106, 1938. (Read in abstract only.
Chem. Abstr. 33: 8764, 1939.)
760. RmEAL, E. K., AND SCHULMAN, J. H.: Nature 144: 100, 1939. Cf. Rm~L, E. K.:
Science 90: 217, 1939.
761. ROBSON, J. M., AND BONSER, G. M.: Nature 142: 836, 1938.
762. Ro~Fo, A. H.: Bol. Inst. reed. exper. 14: 673, 1937.
763. RoF~o, A. H.: Bol. Inst: reed. exper. 15: 5, 349, 1938.
764. Ro~o, A.'H.: Bol. Inst. reed. exper. 15: 407, 1938. '
765. ROll, O, A. H.: BoL Inst. reed. exper. 15: 741, 1938.
766. ROrl~O, A. H.: BoL Inst. reed. exper. 15: 837, 1938.
767. Roll, o, A. H.: Bol. Inst. reed. exper. 16: 1, 1939•
768. RoF~o, A. H.: Bull. Assoc. franq, p. l'~tude du cancer 28: 556, 1939.
769. Ro~o, A. H.: Deutsch. reed. Wchnschr. 65: 963, 1939.
770. Ro~o, A. H.: Deutsch. reed. Wchnschr. 65: 1382, 1939.
771. Ro~l~O, A. H.: Ztschr. f. Krebsforsch. 49: 341, 1939.
772. Ro~o, A. H., ^Nv C6~, L. M.: Bol. Inst. reed. exper. 14: 681, 1937.
773. Ro~o, A. H., ANy Co~, L. M.: Bol. Inst. reed. exper. 15: 847, 1938.
774. RoNvoNI, P.: R. Ist. San. Pubb. 2: 345, 1939. (Read in abstract only.)
775. RONDONI, P., ~ B.v~I, W.: Tumori 13: 585, 1939.
776. RozHm~m~, S., ANn I-I~m~AN, J. R.: Arch. Path. 28: 212, 1939.
777. ROWNI~-E, L. G., $1w__.iNlm.~, A., ~ BROWN, W. R.: Kongressbericht des XVI. Int.
Physiologenkongress, Ziirich. !I, 1938, p. 65.
778. RvscH, H. P., B~v~, C. A., ~,NV KLn~E, B. E.: Proc. Soc. Exper. BioL & Meal. 42:
$08, 1939.
779. Sas~tz/~s, J., Bmm~, J., ~ GEVF.~, A.: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol. 127: 4~3, 1938.
780. SazA~trr~ H.: Fukuoka acta reed. 31: 164, 1938.

THE AMERICAN
.,JOURNAL OF CANCER
Editor
FRANCIS CARTER WOOD
THE INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESF_2kRCH
OF
Volume XXXIII
The Official Organ ot
The American Association for Cancer Research
and
The American Association for the Study of
Neoplastic Diseases
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT
Cop/tight, 1938. bg the Institute of Cancer Research
of Columb;- Univ~,~ity

"CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AS CARCINOGENIC AGENTS
Frost SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT: LITERATURE OF 1937
J. W. COOK A~m E. L. KENNAWAY
(From the Roya~ Cancer Hospital (Free), London)
A review of the progress made in the study of the carcinogenic properties
of chemical compounds, incorporating literature published during the triennial
period between the First and Second International Cancer Congresses, was
presented to the Second International Congress in Brussels, in September
1936, and was subsequently reprinted with an addendum covering most of the
literature published up to the end of 1936 (231). The year 1937 has again
witnessed a large output of new work in this field and this is summarised in
the present report. For convenience of reference the general classification
adopted in the original report has been retained and the references are num-
bered continuously.
CHEMICAL RELATIONSHIPS
Group I. Cholanthrene Derivatives
An interesting review of the carcinogenic properties of a number of com-
pounds structurally related to cholanthrene was published early in the year by
Fieser, Fieser, Hershberg, Newman, Seligrnan, and Shear (250). In the case
of many of the compounds discussed the results of biological testing were
necessarily of a preliminary character, and the points of view expressed may
eventually require slight modification. Reference is made to some of these
compounds under Group III (below). The synthesis of 4:10-dimethylene-
1:2-benzanthracene, an isomeride of cholanthrene, has now been described by
Fieser and Seligman (256) and the same compound was prepared by Dansi
(239, 240) by a different method. This compound, when injected into rats,
produces tumours of connective tissue (308); so the interesting fact emerges
that of the four known isomeric " ace-l:2-benzanthracenes,, the three in
which substitution occurs at a meso position of the benzanthracene molecule
are all carcinogenic (cholanthrene, 8: 9 -dimethylene- 1 : 2 -benzanthracene, 4:10-
dimethylene-1:2-benzanthracene), whereas the fourth, 3:4'-dimethylene-1:2-
benzanthracene (228), in which this condition is not fulfilled, is inactive.
Cholanthrene is related to 5:10-dimethylene-1:2-cyclopentenoanthracene,
which has been synthesised by Fieser and He~shberg (251), in the same way
that 1:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene is related to the slightly more carcinogenic
5:6-cyclopenteno-l:2-benzanthracene. Fieser and Hershberg (253) have re-
cently reported that Shear obtained tumours at the site of injection in 3 of 20
mice within ten months after injection of a lard solution of 5 : 10-dimethylene-
1: 2-cyclopentenoanthracene.
The loss of carcinogenic activity following the introduction of a methyl
5O
group int,
our previ~
cholanthr,
tion in th~
Bruce ant
A hey
Bergmam
method i~
the final :
eight hou
conversio
pound wt
(333), w]
arises fro
derivative
with phe
compoun,
the chemJ
group fo~
carbon g
derivatiw
suggests
anthrene
centres t¢
ring of tt
Of im
obtained
solution
