Virologist Hans Wolf of the University of Regensburg in Germany has been working on the etiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in areas of China since 1979. Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), too, have been working with their Chinese colleagues on cancer epidemiology and etiology. The reasons for this cooperative research vary, but as Federico Welsch, associate director for international affairs at NCI, points out, "They have some cancers that are rare in the developed world." Among these are nasopharyngeal cancer, certain liver cancers, and esophageal cancer. Environmental factors have been implicated.
Research by Wolf and Chinese colleagues Yi Zeng, chief of the department of tumor viruses at the Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine (CAPM) and former president of CAPM, Shu-Yan Gu, now deputy director of the National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control, and others, is leading to development of a vaccine.
In work ...
