Biography

Why don't most humans get cancer in spite of big body mass, long lifespan and even some intentional exposures to known carcinogens (such as cigarette smoking)? The answer may come from a single male BALB/c mouse that unexpectedly survived challenges of highly lethal cancer cells in 1999. The survival of this mouse was very surprising since that no other mouse of any strain had ever survived this type of cancer. Even more surprising was that about 40% of offspring of this male mouse also survived many different cancer challenges, meaning that this cancer resistance is a genetic trait.

This trait has now been passed on to more than 2000 offspring in more than 15 generations and in several different mouse strains. In the last several years, intense study has revealed additional surprises. 1) Although the inheritance pattern of this trait is simple, the genetics is not conventional. There was no conventional linkage found so far between the trait and a fixed location on any chromosome, suggesting a possibility for a jumping gene or a "paramutation"-like element. 2) The cancer resistance is entirely mediated by the leukocytes of innate immunity that are able to sort out cancer cells for specific killing without harming normal cells. The cancer resistant mice are healthy and long-lived. 3) The mice can resist a wide array of cancer cells and endogenous malignancies. 4) The resistance can be transferred to normal mice via isolated macrophages or neutrophils for highly effective treatment of established cancers and for long-term protection against future cancer challenges. 5) Some humans may have similar cancer resistance in their leukocytes. This project will continue in the directions of cancer resistance gene-mapping, immune mechanism, cancer-associated molecular targets and the search for natural cancer resistance in humans and new cancer treatment strategies.

Zheng Cui's Abstract