Viral oncology in history

In this conversation, Baker overviews how NCI began its work in cancer virology with $10 million in funding. 

Carl Baker: Well, let me make one more area that I think was very important for laying groundwork, and this is the Viruses-Cancer area…which later got shifted to the genetic information rather than viruses, which is a fascinating story, but I’ll touch on it. 

So of the stuff that came out of the previous programs before the Act, one of the most important areas was the Viruses-Cancer area. And NCI requested special appropriations of $10 million to expand the programs on viruses and cancer because we had a lot of evidence that viruses could cause cancers. 

In fact, when I left NCI, NCI had found and grantees and contractors had identified over 200 viruses that could cause cancers in certain animals. We still don’t have more than two or three viruses that have been established to cause cancers in human beings. But in those days, we were finding that we could begin to understand how the viruses produced cancers in all these animals. 

And, as I already mentioned, resources are very important there for moving ahead. So this program—a major effort was to produce the resources needed to move the field along. 

And this request for $10 million for that program allowed us to expand the program, and we had to put together a lot of information justifying why we wanted to go to Congress to ask for special appropriations. That isn’t done very often.

So three or four of us put together a memorandum justifying this request. Dr. Shannon, with his usual emphasis on quality, wanted more information, and so we had to pull together some more information. And he said, “Okay, we’ll go request this.” 

And we requested it and then got the money, and that led to the planning of the viruses area. 

In fact, after the $10 million was appropriated, Ken Endicott came to Carrese and me, and said, “OK, you guys have been talking about planning, give me a plan for a $10 million program in cancer virology.” So, with Rauscher, who became director after I was director, we took three weeks off and laid out the Viruses-Cancer planned program.

Frank Rauscher went to work for NCI in 1959 in the Laboratory of Viral Oncology, where he discovered a mouse leukemia virus whose properties made laboratory studies in mice and rats faster and easier. The Rauscher leukemia virus still is widely used in research.

In 1964 he was appointed head of the Special Virus Cancer Program, and in 1967 became associate director for viral oncology. The viral oncology program eventually led to discoveries that form the basis of modern molecular genetics. From 1969 to 1972 he headed what is now the Div. of Cancer Etiology.

Rauscher was a respected administrator and effective advocate for the National Cancer Program. He charted the rapid expansion in the early years of the cancer program as NCI’s budget climbed from $400 million to more than $800 million when he resigned in 1976.

He expanded programs in viral oncology and chemotherapy, as well as what he called “people programs” in cancer prevention and control and research training.

CARL BAKER, who served as director of the National Cancer Institute from 1969 to 1972, died Feb. 11 at a hospice in Rockville, Md. He was 88 and had myelodysplastic syndrome.

During his tenure, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which added $100 million to the institute’s budget and gave it increased authorities. The NCI budget increased from $181 million to $378 million in the three years Baker led the institute.

“He was a wonderful leader of the institute and truly a great friend,” NCI Deputy Director Alan Rabson said to The Cancer Letter. “He was a major force in bringing contracting to the research efforts.”

ASCO is saddened by the death of oncology luminary and past Board of Directors member Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, FACP, FASCO, on September 20, 2022, at the age of 72.

Dr. Vogelzang was most recently a medical oncologist with Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada (CCCN). He served as medical director of the Research Executive Committee and associate chair of the Developmental Therapeutics and Genitourinary Committees for US Oncology Research. He previously served as director of the Nevada Cancer Institute, and as director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center and the institution’s first Fred C. Buffett Professor in Medicine.

Among his many scientific achievements, Dr. Vogelzang will be remembered for his leadership on the clinical trials that led to the approvals of pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin for mesothelioma and abiraterone in combination with prednisone for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, bringing renewed hope to patients with these diseases.

Read more in ASCO Connection.