Partial support for the 41st Gordon Research Conference on Cancer is requested. In recent years, this meeting has explored issues of tumor heterogeneity and determinants of metastasis, both important aspects of tumor evolution and spread. Earlier events that influence cancer susceptibility and etiology will be a major concern of the 1988 conference. The meeting will include 9 plenary sessions, usually with a brief introduction by a chairman 2 or 3 invited talks. One session is structured as a debate, initiated by a talk by George Klein with several formal discussants. The sessions are entitled 1) Mutation and repair: the adaptive response; 2) Critical early events in cancer; 3) Cancer genes and cancer suppressor genes; 4) Familial cancer; is it a model for sporadic disease? 5) Differentiation and carcinogenesis; 6) Stromal influences on tumor growth; 7) 3-D models for molecular lesions in cancer; 8) Is there genetic predisposition to tumor development with AIDS? and 9) Other strategies to detect genomic lesions in cancer. About 125 distinguished and innovative scientists will attend, drawn from universities, research institutes, industry, and government agencies, from the U.S. and abroad; almost 1/3 will contribute to the formal program. Their interests will span basic research and clinical cancer diagnosis and treatment. Poster presentations will be invited from all attendees. In each session, ample time will be allotted for participation from the audience. The conferees will evaluate current knowledge and theory concerning genes that influence expression of the malignant phenotype. The purpose of the conference is both to confer better understanding of the initial events in cancer, and to generate new directions in research.
