Cancer Research Center Established

The Medical School's Department of Radiation Therapy has received a five-year, $2 million grant for the establishment of a Cancer Research Center (CRC).

The grant was made possible by the Conquest of Cancer bill, sponsored by President Nixon and recently passed by Congress. The legislation calls for the allocation of $1.6 billion over a three-year period.

Dr. Samuel Hellman, Fuller American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Therapy, is chairman of the Department and the principal investigator of the CRC.

Hellman emphasized that, in terms of the purpose of the legislation, the grant is a large one. "Not much of it (the Conquest of Cancer legislation) is for grant funds," he said. "A lot of money is being allocated for building and intramural activities. Our grant is for research; it's a large grant."

The money will be used for research on molecular biology, cellular radiation biology, tumor immunology, and the genetic effect of radiation. Many of these study areas were already under research, although, as Hellman added, "We would have had to scrap a number of these projects without this support."

A number of centers receiving grants for cancer research have been pressured by taxpayers and legislators--who fear the money might be wasted--to produce concrete results in their cancer studies, according to James D. Watson, professor of Molecular Biology, in an article in The New Republic.

"In terms of the specific grant," Hellman said, "we feel no pressure at all. Those who have had money granted for buildings may feel some political pressure. Our purpose is to improve our ability to transfer the results of the lab into the clinic."

The CRC will unify and centralize many of the cancer-related research activities of five of the Medical School's teaching hospitals.

The five participating hospitals are the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston Hospital for Women, Children's Hospital Medical Center, New England Deaconess Hospital, and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Close cooperation with other hospitals in the Greater Boston Area is also maintained by the CRC.