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The Biology of Tobacco and Nicotine: Bench to Bedside

¹ Cancer Therapeutics Branch, ² Laboratory of Metabolism, Gene Expression Section, ³ Cellular Defense and Carcinogenesis Section, Laboratory of Metabolism, ⁴ Cellular Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis, and ⁵ Laboratory of Cellular Carcinogenesis and Tumor Promotion, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute; ⁶ Head and Neck Surgery Branch, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; ⁷ Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute on Dental and Craniofacial Research; ⁸ Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse; and ⁹ Statistical Genetics Section, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH; ¹⁰ Department of Pharmacology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia; ¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas

Requests for reprints: Philip A. Dennis, Laboratory of Cellular Carcinogenesis and Tumor Promotion, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889. Phone: 513-558-5724; Fax: 513-558-4397. E-mail: wiestj{at}mail.nih.gov

Strong epidemiologic evidence links smoking and cancer. An increased understanding of the molecular biology of tobacco-related cancers could advance progress toward improving smoking cessation and patient management. Knowledge gaps between tobacco addiction, tumorigenesis, and cancer brought an interdisciplinary group of investigators together to discuss "The Biology of Nicotine and Tobacco: Bench to Bedside." Presentations on the signaling pathways and pathogenesis in tobacco-related cancers, mouse models of addiction, imaging and regulation of nicotinic receptors, the genetic basis for tobacco carcinogenesis and development of lung cancer, and molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis were heard. Importantly, new opportunities to use molecular biology to identify and abrogate tobacco-mediated carcinogenesis and to identify high-risk individuals were recognized.