USC Tobacco Industry Monitoring Project Collection
Report Concerning Scientists and Scientific Research Prepared by RJR Scientists and Transmitted to RJR In-house Legal Counsel and Copied to RJR Scientists Working On Behalf of the Legal Department for the Purpose of Providing Confidential Information in Order to Assist in the Rendering of Legal Advice.
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f,~,DRANDLN R.J.Reynol~s'lbba~,c3 Company
From: Frank 6. Colby
and
Oskar Stuhl ~
November 8, 1982
To: Mr. Samuel B. Witt, III
Mr. Peter J. van Every
RE: TRIP REPORT ON VISIT TO
OF IkIRT-~mbH, September 2~ to ~tober 6, 1982
~e visits to the gr~tees were entirely s~cess~, ~d all our
objectives were met. ~ent objectives £or ea~ preset project ~d
£o~co~g proposals are tenably on target. In ~e £ollo~g re-
re~rt, the visits are disused separately for ea~ ~tee ~ s~e
detail. For 1983, it ~y ~ssibly be adv~tageo~ to ~eck ~ on
so~ of ~e projects so~t ~re Sr~uently.
~e trip w~, however, ve~ strenuo~, s~ce ~ere were ~et~gs
~d/or travel eve~ ~y, ~cl~g .~turdays ~d S~ys. ~ ~T-
~H ~temal meet~gs on i~83, b~get~g ~d gener~ ~licies, etc.,
co~d not be held co~letely be~e of co~et~g priorities.
~e atten~ce at the Pors~gsrat Titisee ~et~gs was ~val~ble,
not only for the re~o~ ~ted out
also pe~tted ~ to contr~t Pors~gsrat resear~ ~d ~T-~H re-
search, the latter berg co~aratively £~cially ve~ ~est. In our
option, ~st of ~T-~H spo~ored research is not only of higher
caliber, but also more val~ble £rom ~ Ind~t~ ~t of view. ~is is
so ~ spite of the fact t~t &e ~T-~H ~ded resear~ers are totally
~dependent whi~ the Porsch~gsrat are t~, theoreti~lly, even though
~ practice they seem directed.
~ofessor ~ria Blo~e ~iversit)" of Heidelber~
~ofessor Bloke is one of Ge~y's for~ost epid~ologists. She h~
~'o projects ~de~'ay. ~e first project on ~ich ~ta collection is
co~leted is entitled "Psychosocial Factors ~d S~k~g as ~sks of L~g
It is also recalled that several ~nths ago ~ofessor Blo~e pub-
lished a paper endors~g the "controversy" concept of the alleged re-
lations~p between smok~g ~d l~g c~cer. ~is paper was ~itten
co~letel)" ~dependently from her ~T-~H research contract,
at the t~, a ve~ gratify~g but total sunrise to
ration w~ first given at ~ ~rt~t
over

-2-
then appeared in a widely read ~erman medical journal.
Coming back to project number one, Professor Blohmke and her asso-
ciates have evaluated part of the data and prepared a manuscript for
publication in a scientific journal. These data deal with the responses
to a detailed psychological questionnaire and compare smokers with ltmg
cancer with two control groups: a) healthy smokers, b) smokers with
non-malignant lung diseases. This manuscript was discussed in some
detail. It must be ~mphasized that, as a matter of principle for all
projects, we VERY scrupulously avoid discussing the substance - as
opposed to format - of the data and experiments, since this is entirely
the responsibility of the researchers. Professor Blohmke submitted to
us some months ago an earlier version of her manuscript, which left very
much to be desired because of the poor quality of ~erman to Fmglish
translation, and the lack of clarity of the manuscript in general. The
' revised version only very partially incorporated the redactional changes
which we had suggested in writing and by phone earlier, in response to
the first draft. This time, in our face-to-face meeting, Professor
Blohmke and her associate Y[r. Stelzer (statistician), were more open-
minded than on the previous occasions. These suggested changes in the
text and tables - if implemented - would substantially improve the
clarity of the manuscript. The data confim the importance of psycho-
social parameters as lung cancer risk factors. An essential finding of
the study is that the smoking factor does not substantially improve the
discriminant function of the analysis based on these psychosocial fac-
tors alone. But smoking is still found to be a key risk factor. Several,
but not all, of the initially postulated psychosocial~ hypotheses were
confirmed. It was also ascertained that hospital stay, per se, did not
affect the results. However, the validity of the data is not as "sig-
nificant" as might be desired. This, according to Professor BY~amke and
her associates, is minly because of the '~alidity~' of the questionnaire
used, and did not live up to the claims by its author (Bahnson). Also,
" out of necessity, the quantitation of the smoking data leaves something
to be desired.
A further data analysis is in preparation and it involves non-
smokers, again comparing healthy non-smokers to non-smokers with ltmg
cancer and non-smokers with non-malignant lung diseases. Professor
Blohmke and associates will also try to determine whether or not a
meaningful analysis of smokers versus non-smokers is feasible.
An entirely unexpected, but very preliminary ancillary of the first
project finding was that there may be an association between some of the
psychosocial questionnaire responses and the occurrence of some lung
cancer cell types, but tmforttmately not with squamous carcinoma. This
data was tmcovered by Professor Blohmke's (then) pathology associate,
Professor Jacob of Heidelberg, and is discussed in our report on our
meeting with Professor Jacob.
Professor Blohmke and her associates also have already started work
on project number two, which is entitled "Psychosocial Factors in Smo-
king as Kisks of Lung Cancer in ~ales, Using the ~.ysenck Questionnaire
and other Questions". Project number two is similar to project number

-3-
one, except that the ranch more frequently '~lidl)~' tested ~ysenck
questionnaire ~rill be used instead of Bahnson~s, ~Lich, as stated
above, has been found to be somewhat vranting. The project will even-
tually involve about 1,000 probands plus the same number of controls.
Data collection is about half completed and is expected to be total-
ly completed by about the end of April 1985.
There are a number of difficulties, such as lack of cooperation by
some of the participating clinics to furnish probands and complete
medical data. The latter refers especially to pathological diagnoses of
the different lung cancers. Another problem is that many of the probands
referred by the clinics do not fulfill the previously specified criteria
and are, therefore, useless. There are also problems finding sufficient
numbers of non-smokers with lung cancer.
Initial data analysis is expected by the end of 1983. Professor
Blohmke has promised to furnish a brief interim report, especially on
project number t~o, by the beginning of December.
Professor Wolfgang Jacob University of Heidelberg
Professor Jacob is one of Europe's foremost pathologists, ~ho often
represents West Germany on international beards. He was in charge of
patholo~ of the first Blohmke project ( see pages one and t~o of th~s
report). He made two unrelated ne~ research project suggestions to us.
Project idea number one: Relationship between psychological profile
and lung cancer cell type.
Some preliminary data fro~ the above mentioned first Blohmke
project on male lung cancer suggest a 'tsignificant't association between
psychological questionnaire response and adenocarcinoma and small cell
- carcinoma, but not squamous cell and less important lung cancer types.
Professor Jacob explained this lack of association with squamous cell
carcinoma by ~hat is, according to him, a, relatively recent, consensus
among pathologists that squamous cell carcinoma, especially if compared
to adenocarcinoma, is not a well defined entity, but a conglomerate of
sub-types. Also, due to some lack of cooperation from some of the
clinics and problems related to the relatively recent German data
release legislation (see also the section of our discussion with Dr.
Lock), the number of unequivocally cytologically diagnosed lung cancer
cases is only 332, i.e., only little more than one-third of the total
888 probands. Professor Jacob is suggesting to cooperate with a major,
diagnostically and cytologically well qualified, German lung cancer
clinic in order to expand the number of available cases by submitting to
them again the psychological questionnaire of the first Blohmke project,
and then to blindly analyze the cytology. This is to verify whether or
not the "significant" relationship to the above two lung cancer types
and the questionnaire response persists, and also whether or not a
relationship to squamous carcinoma or some types of squamous cell carci-
noma can be uncovered.
Project idea number two: Stud)" of linguistic tape profile as
affected by lung cancer, stomach cancer and attempted suicide.

-4-
Based on positive findings with other diseases by a clinic of the
University of Berlin (Ms. Fmgel-Wodack), computer analyzed linguistic
tape profiles will be examined for "significant" differences for the
cancers, etc., mentioned. It is hoped that analyses will lead to a
blind predictability from the tapes of the medical diagnoses ascer-
taining thereby a potential constitutional factor of these diseases.
This rather unorthodox project idea was su~ested by empirical clinic
observations that prior to diagnosis, people with different types of
later unequivocally ascertained malignancies seemed to have very dis-
tinct styles of speech. Professor Jacob has promised to submit to .us
for appraisal, written proposals on these t~ project ideas before the
end of the year.
Dr. l~ilhelm Lock- head o._~ .thee German Tuberculosis Organization, Hamburg.
l~e met Dr. Lock in Mainz ~here he attended a medical meeting. It
is recalled that Dr. Lock, several months ago, published the results of
his first P~TRT-(~ubH research grant in the second most important German
medical journal, which was followed by some favorable German media re-
action. The results showed that, using the unique data bases of the
Hamburg cancer registry, there has been no change in percentage of
total cancer m~rtality, including lung cancer, from the late 19th cen-
tury to date (i.e., since much prior to the widespread acceptance of
cigarette smoking), provided some very reasonable corrections are made
for the change in the age structure of the population and the improve-
ment in cancer diagnoses. In other terms, this shows that - contrary to
medical Establishment opinion - cancers are not predominantly determined
by the environment (e.g., diet, smoking, pol~-u-~ion, etc.). According to
Dr. Lock, these very important findings have not been challenged to
date.
FGC's original plan was to continue this project by trying to
relate the causes of death of the immediate blood relatives and an-
cestors to deaths of lung cancer victims, using again the unique re-
sources available in Hamburg. The intended purpose of the project was,
of course, to ascertain the genetic factor in lung cancer. After in-
tensive efforts, Dr. Lock has regretfully come to the conclusion that
this project, cannot be executed as planned because of the current ve~/
stringent German legislation, making the access to such data impossible.
Dr. Lock proposed, however, the following two simultaneous related
projects: Project proposal number one is aimed at an alternative method
of assessing the "genetic factor" in lung cancer. Project number two is
aimed at retesting the overall constancy of cancer incidence, irregard-
less of environmental influences.
Project idea number one: In 1953, Dr. Lock initiated a special
lung cancer file within the Hamburg social security office. This com-
prises to date about 6,000 case histories of actual and suspected lung
cancer cases. Each case history includes detailed anamnesis data inclu-
ding information on alleged causes of death for relatives. Each file
also has inforn~tion on earlier diseases. Each case is carried - gene-
rally during life - (only) to the point of "definitive" clinical diagno-
sis, i.e , as to ~hether or not there was lung cancer. Assessing this
unique data base should permit to determine the extent of genetic and]or
familiar factors in lung cancer.

-5-
Project idea number two: Prepare an age-adjusted county by county
"total cancer ~ortality" mp of ~Vest Gertany to determine deviations, if
an)', of each of the county rates from the co.arable overall German
rate. The underlying hypothesis is that the overall cancer death rates
for each county will not differ "significantly" from the overall German
cancer mortality rate; if the hypothesis is confirmed or not, this
can perhaps yield data about whether or to what extent the environmental
influences affect cancer rates.
Because Dr. Lock is engaged in the organization of a major medical
meeting in his immediate area of expertise, these two projects could
only be initiated during the last quarter of 1985. Hoover, Dr. Lock
has promised to transmit to us the two project proposals before the
beginning of this December. A ~ry tentative cost estimate for these
projects is about 100 to 120 th~and I~t per year ($40 - 48,000)..
Professor Dr. K. H. Staecker University of ]~ssen
The thrust of this - two phased - research project is to determine
the relationship - if any - between respiratory ~unction and psychosocial
profile. Freed from "jargon" an essential, but ~ preliminary finding
of the project, is that the ]~stablishment allegation that smoking by it-
self determines, or is one of the most important factors determining
respiratory ~unctions, was not confirmed. It also seems possible that
respiratory and psychosocial--~'actors max determine smoking and not the
reverse. Another finding was a very decided difference in smoking moti-
vation - including the ETsenck extroversion hypothesis - between men and
women. An earlier and a very recent progress reports are on hand.
There are, however, a number of problems. The investigators made
a major error in not contracting their probands and obligating them to
have to carry both the parts of the project through from the beginning
to the end. The first part of the stud), dealt with the administration.
of the detailed special psychosocial questionnaire, the second part
with the respiratory function tests. Out ofan original 125 probands,
about two-thirds dropped out and only 59 remained after the completion
of the questionnaire, to undergo the second part of the study, the
respiratory ~unction test. To date an additional 14 probands were
called later to go through both stages of the project, yielding a total
of 53. It is planned to recruit additional probands to bring the total
to 100 (one-half male and one-half female). A well planned facet is
that all the respiratory ~mctions were done a) as the average of seve-
ral measurements and b) were done in double blind fashion for the same
parameters. An earlier finding (questionnaire only) was that the
~.ysenck extra-version concept was found to be only valid for female
smokers. Allfindings are very preliminary because they are based on
complex statistical manipulation of a large number and, with the avail-
able number of probands - in our opinions - excessive number of vari-
ables. Also, the determination of the quantitation of smoking remains a
problem.
Professor Dr. Diether Neubert University Berlin
Our current research project by Professor Neubert deals with the

-6-
effect of chemical carcinogens on pregnant animals and their fetuses,
with potential extension to the effects - if any - of smoking on preg-
nant women and/or their voluntarily aborted placentas and fetuses.
Short-range and non-con~ital long-range planning for this endeavor
involves the following three stages:
a) Effects of single or t~o established carcinogens on
pregnant rodents and their fetuses;
b) Effects of single or t~o established chemical carcinogens
on pregnant 'higher" animals, i.e., marmoset monkeys and
their fetuses;
c) Effects -if any- of smoking on pregnant wo~en and]or their
voluntarily aborted placentae using a unique "data base"
available only in Berlin.
Funding for phase 'ta" has been committed. It involves two species:
mice and rats. The experiments with mice have been completed. A paper
for publication is in the final drafting stage. The experiments with
rats are undencay and should be completed, including drafting of a paper
about November of 1985. There has been some delay in completing this
work because Professor Neubert had unexpectedly received a sabbatical
appointment for about six months at the University of California in
Davis. However, "routine" experiments are continuing under the -on the
spot- supervision of one of Dr. Neubortts assistants.
FGC had tried to meet with Professor Neube-rt prior .~to the Seattle
Cancer Congress; however, no mtually convenient date could be fotmd.
However, by coincidence, Professor Neubert had been invited to par-
ticipate in a meeting of the World Health Organization in Geneva,
S~itzerland, ~hile we were visiting our other German grantees. We
arranged to have a get-together in Geneva. This had the additional
advantage of being able to include Dr. Stuhl in our discussions.
In our meeting with Professor Neubert, he made the following
conmitments to furnish us the following before the end of November:
1. A draft of the paper on the mice experiments.
2. A short outline status report on the rat experiments.
5. A project proposal with costs ~ etc., on the marmoset
experiments.
4. A proposal on a feasibility phase prior to a unique major
long range study of what has been identified above as
stage
Professor H~..~'_. t~ediger - l~niversity of Hamburg
The project deals with Dht~ related Benzo(a)pyrene Hetabolism in
specific cells of constitutionally susceptible lung cancer patients.
This is a continuation of a previous study funded by us with Dr.
Rnediger and which had shown that lung cancer patients had an increased
benzo(a)pyrene ~A adduct formation compared to healthy controls, and
that this ~'as "independent of smoking habits". There was also a sug-
sestion of a possible "enhanced risk on a constitutional basis to
develop cancer". There ~'as, however, some doubt about the biological

significance of the results because of a large overlap between the
groups compared and a large inter-individual variability in each group.
Therefore, the present study was started to reassess the findings by
selectively studying those lung cancer patients who might be considered
to have, potentially, a particularly enhanced genetic risk to develop
lung cancer and in particular the following four groups:
Lung cancer patients aged less than 45 years.
b) Wc~en ~ith lung cancer.
Lung cancer patients ~ho had at least one first
degree relative ~ith the same disease.
d) Nonos~okers ~rith lung cancer.
The original plan ~ras to use a specific cell type called ~onocytes
(like the first Rj~roG~bH project); however~ since the quantitative
differences are subtle~ a larger m~ount of ~onocytes would have to be
collected fr~n each patient. Often the mnounts required were larger
than could reasonably be obtained from a patient. Professor ~nediger~
therefore~ decided to also -in addition- use a different cell type~
i.e.~ fibroblasts. According to Professor ~ediger~ the use of fibro-
blasts has also the advantage that they ¢~n later be used for a poteno
tially highly significant future project dealing ~ith the identification
of t'oncogenes" for lung cancer~ none of ~ich are ~no~n to date.
Finding probands for some of the groups presents so~e difficulties.
There are no difficulties in finding probands for groups A and B men-
tioned above. However~ there have been some difficulties in finding
probands for group C~ i.e. ~ lung cancer patiens ~ith blood relatives
having the s~e disease. According to Professor ~nediger~ this is not
because no probands clearly exist~ but because of the gross inadequacy
of the patientst hospital histories in that respect. There are even
greater difficulties in finding nonosmeking lung cancer patients if non-
s~oking is defined as '~ever smoking". According to Professor ~uediger~
this is probably because for the German generation under study ~ever
smokers" are rare~ regardless of their health status. It is~ therefore~
planned to include in this group e~smokers of more than six years~ but
later to analyze these ex°sf~okers and the ~ever s~okers~1 separately.
An unexpectedly large amount of ti~e had to be devoted to the - no~'
successfully completed -development of a sufficiently reliable anal)rti-
cal method. ~o~ever~ it is hoped that the collection of the above data
~ill be completed in about three or four menths and that the data can be
analyzed and a draft of a paper for publication can be completed to°
gerber ~ith a third project proposal by the autumn of 198~.
Professor ~ediger has expressed high hopes that the mothodologF
developed ~ill provide additional information about genetic predispo-
sition and ¢ell specificity ~ith reference to lung cancer potential~ and
even more i~portantly~ provide a unique research tool for further
studies on the biochemical basis of carcinogenesis~ e.g.~ the role of
host factors such as the presence of oncogenes~ etc.
.

-8-
Dr. Gerhard Winueke - Institute of ~nvironmental ~giene of the
U~-[versitF of Duesseldorf.
The thrust of the study is to determine whether or not non-smokers
~ho claim and are objectively assessed to be "irritated" or "annoyed" by
other people's smoking, are chronic complainers and overreact to all
types of irritation.
FGC met (~rith) Dr. lqinneke for the first time several'years ago at
a scientific meeting where he gave a paper on an objective methodology
developed by him to measure annoyauce, in general, without any reference
to smoking. At that time, I:GC suggested to him a project with the focus
indicated above. Since then, Dr. l~inneke has developed his methodology
further. On the other hand, he has been quite dilatory in getting
started on the project because his Institute has projects funded by the
German Government and/or by the German ~nhr industry which took precedence.
The gist of the methodology for the objective measurement of
irritation is through the determination of finger pulse volt~e and pupil
dilation. The methodology b~s been finally worked out, completely
independently of our funding. Some earlier preliminary investigation of
irritation by the smoking of others, done at no cost to us, confirmed
our hypothesis. Dr. ~qinneke has no~ started on the project. To our
astonishment, he was completely unaware that the chief of his Institute
had already requested and received a substantial portion of our grant
money. Upon our insistence, during our conversation, ~he undertook an
official obligation to complete the raw data collection by about l~arch
31 and at least a draft report, including.data analysis by about June 30
of 1983. The effect of smoking on non-smokers will be determined in
about SO male and 50 female students in an experimental chamber simalat-
ing as much as possible "real life" conditions. It was agreed that
excessive smoking conditions will be avoided; this will be done through
constant CO measurement and limiting (20 to 410 ppm. During our meeting,
we were informed that ~GC's general hypothesis was also confirmed, in a
tangential way, in an unpublished incomplete study at the same Institute
by a Dr. J. ~astka. This reasearcher found that '~eurotics" are more
sensitive than 'h~ormals" to odor level differences (not smoking) and
noise levels. Dr. ~inneke informed us also about another Institute
project which, contrary to current beliefs, found that odor levels are
not the sole determining factor of a psychological reaction but that
odor quality also plays a role.
Professor Dietrich Henschler - University of l~uerzburg
Professor Henschler is one of Germany's and the world's foremost
toxicologists. His Ik~gr-OmbH funded research is of a very fundamental
nature. It deals ~-ith the chemical carcinogenesis in rats of some
specific very strong animal carcinogens belonging to a group of chemical
compounds called aromatic amines.- (These specific compounds do neither
occur in tobacco nor in smoke.) The wider aim of the research is to
determine ~ether or not there is a threshold for carcinogens, in general
and strong carcinogens in particular, and to elucidate the mechanisms
involved.

-9-
We did not visit with Professor Henschler in Germany because, just
prior to FGC's departure for ~.urope, Professor Henschler presented a
lecture on his grant research to the R6D Department in Winston-Salem.
It is anticipated that Professor Henschler .wi.'ll send the "obligatory"
short progress report on his grant project to C~lo~ne and to Winston-
Salem by early December of this year. ~'~'~/f
November 8, 1982
Frank G. Colby
cc: G.R.DiM. '~:~/~'" ~ /'~.
C.W.N. ~ Oskar Stuhl
W.D.
B.F.P.
