News News divisions of NCI will also try to discover the steps prostate cells take towards becoming cancerous, and how this progression might be halted.

Prostate cancer also appears in many men in an innocuous form. Linehan and other researchers are hoping to find genetic differences between the indolent form, which is not threatening to the life of the patient, and more aggressive prostate cancer. Autopsy studies have shown that more than 30% of men over age 50 have evidence of prostate cancer, yet the vast majority of these cancers will never become a threat. "We need to know in which [cases] it is appropriate to recommend surgery or radiation, and we need more powerful tools to perform early detection and to understand in which individuals intervention is appropriate," said Linehan. The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian screening trial (PLCO) will screen 37,000 men and 37,000 women aged 60 to 74 (balanced with 74,000 unscreened controls). For prostate screening, PLCO will use digital rectal exams

Dr. W. Marston Lineitai _

Vol. 84, No. 7, April 1, 1992

Prevention Trial According to NCI's Otis Brawley, M.D., a prostate cancer prevention trial will evaluate the drug Proscar, enrolling 12,000 to 18,000 men at high risk for prostate cancer. Proscar decreases the synthesis of dihydrotestosterone, which has been implicated in tumor promotion. NCI hopes to enroll patients this fall for the 10-year study. NCI also is encouraging research in prostate cancer by establishing Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grants. The grants will be funded at $2.5 million over 3 years to institutions willing to make a strong commitment to concentrated research on all aspects of a particular cancer. At least two of the seven or more SPOREs, which will be awarded in end of FY 1992, are expected to be earmarked for prostate cancer. —By Nancy Volkers

Nation Calls for Increased Yew Tree Collection Even though cooperation between federal and private agencies has resulted in a significant increase in yew bark collection, Congress and environmentalists are calling for expanded efforts to reduce waste and increase retrieval, thereby expanding availability of taxol. Because of the shortage of taxol, only 500 patients per year were receiving taxol in clinical trials before collaboration began between the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Cancer Institute, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, the company that develops taxol, testified Bruce Chabner, M.D., director of NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment, at a recent congressional hearing. This year, 8,000 to 10,000 patients will be able to receive taxol with the 1991 supply harvested through the cooperative effort, he said. "The combined potential population of patients

Dr. Bruce Chabner

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Innocuous

and prostate specific antigen measurements, with positive results in either case leading to the use of further diagnostic methods. The 16-year, $87-million study, set to begin in 1993, will provide valuable information on the early detection of prostate cancer as well as a base for further studies involving the screened population. Current clinical trials in prostate cancer include evaluating radical prostatectomy versus radiotherapy, chemotherapy versus observation after radiotherapy, and hormone manipulation versus observation after radical prostatectomy. Current phase n trials include work with strontium, piroxantrone, taxol, didemnin B, 5-FU plus interferon, and iproplatin. Phase II trials being planned include 5-FU plus leucovorin, 4-hydroxyphenylretinamide and all-trans-retinoic acid. A future study will compare suramin to a series of new agents. Trials are also being planned for men with elevated PSA levels.

News News

with breast and ovarian cancer who may be candidates for treatment with taxol is approximately 50,000 persons per year," he added. At the hearing, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) praised the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service for exceeding their collection goal of yew bark for 1991. More than 825,000 pounds of yew bark was collected from federal lands last year, surpassing the goal of 750,000 pounds. Several congressional subcommittees sponsored the hearing chaired by Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) to discuss the availability and conservation of the Pacific yew tree.

—By Mary Folkemer and Sylvia Bennett

Do More Studds recently introduced the Pacific Yew Act of 1991 (H.R. 3836). The act calls for development of a conservation and management plan for the Pacific yew, an inventory of yew trees, and establishment of task forces within the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to "ensure the development and implementation of consistent policies for 480

Rep. Gerry Studds

EPA's Passive Smoke Assessment: Where Is It? The Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited risk assessment on passive smoking, including the designation of environmental tobacco smoke as a Class A carcinogen, will likely be released later this year, EPA officials said. A newly revised draft of the document, incorporating results of additional studies on lung cancer in adults and respiratory disease in children, will be reviewed by the agency's science advisory board starting in April, and should be ready for release by late summer or fall - more than 2 years after a preliminary version was made public.

Industry Pressure? Anti-smoking activists have blamed tobacco industry pressure for EPA's failure to release the report earlier, but agency officials insisted the delay is due to limited resources and to the science advisory board's suggestion to better substantiate the conclusions with more evidence. An earlier version of the risk assessment was reviewed by the advisory board in December 1990, and appeared to be headed for a summer 1991 release. The report estimated that passive smoking causes 3,700 lung cancer deaths per year, making it the third largest cause behind direct smoking and radon. Athena Mueller, J.D., general counsel for the anti-smoking organization Action on Smoking and Health, said "EPA top brass were then approached by the tobacco industry, which asked them to send the report back to the science advisory board to rethink its opinions. The board came back and said there was no reason to rethink its previous recommendations." Journal of the National Cancer Institute

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Bruce S. Manheim, Jr.

the conservation and management of the Pacific yew." Environmental Defense Fund senior attorney Bruce S. Manheim, Jr., testified that existing logging procedures must be changed to ensure that taxol is available to as many patients as need it. Manheim said the EDF is urging the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to avoid wasting yew trees by adopting a prelogging strategy on federal lands: to collect and harvest yew bark before other timber, so it is not destroyed or damaged. Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) testified at the hearing that congressional oversight should be used as a vehicle to ensure that waste is controlled. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have agreed to develop a conservation and management plan for the yew before the new harvesting season begins. The Forest Service announced that all commercial sales of Pacific yew trees on national forests will be limited to the purpose of taxol production (see Awards, Appointments, Announcements, page 482).