The purpose of this application is to request partial support of the travel expenses for invited speakers and Session Chairpersons to the 44th Gordon Research Conference on Cancer -- one of the oldest Gordon Conferences and one of the most prestigious annual cancer conferences. The 1992 meeting is being organized around the theme: """"""""Cancer, Differentiation and Programmed Cell Death"""""""", and the meeting will take place 16-21 August, 1992 at Salve Regina College in Newport, RI. There has been a great deal of progress recently in elucidating the genes and pathways that regulate cellular commitment to either differentiation or programmed cell death (apoptosis). This progress has been particularly evident in the studies of the hematopoietic and nervous systems. In many ways, cancer can be seen as a failure of cells to either differentiate into mature, post-mitotic cells, or die after induction of the process of apoptosis. This latter phenomenon is emerging as a biological process that can be studied in the laboratory. The potential relevance of these themes to cancer is obvious: a better understanding of these processes may permit them to be activated specifically to induce immature, malignant cells to either undergo terminal differentiation or to undergo apoptotic degeneration. In the former case, malignant tumors could be converted into benign tumors, rendering them amenable to surgical management. In the latter case, tumors could be induced to regress and obviate potentially even the need for surgery. The aspect that is particularly attractive to these approaches to cancer management is that they may involve the activation of normal cellular processes by normal differentiation factors or cellular mediators that would be more physiologic and lack the usual toxicities associated with conventional chemotherapy. Accordingly, the Conference has been organized into nine inter-related sessions: 1) Regulation of cell Cycle and Cell Death; 2) Differentiation in Mesodermal Tissues and Tumors; 3) Differentiation in Normal and Malignant Hematopoietic Cells; 4) Apoptosis in Normal and Malignant Hematopoietic Cells; 5) Differentiation in Neural Tissues and Tumors; 6) Apoptosis in Neural Tissues and Tumors; 7) Apoptosis in Ectodermal Tissues and Tumors; 8) Selected Short Presentations from Abstracts; and 9) Summary and Future Directions (2 Keynote Speakers). In addition, there will be 3-4 afternoon Poster Sessions. We expect this Gordon Conference to bring together investigators from academia and the biotechnology industry, from several different disciplines (cancer biology, cell and molecular biology, developmental biology, clinical investigation), as well as different thematic areas related to cellular commitment to proliferate, differentiate or die. We expect that the 1992 Gordon Research Conference on Cancer will provide a forum for lively discussion in an informal atmosphere that will foster scientific interaction. The theme of this conference should be of broad interest and represents a particularly timely and unique topic that has not been addressed in previous cancer research conferences.
