21 



Statement of Dr. Michael Grever 

 National Cancer Institute 



Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee. I am Dr. Michael Grever, 

 Associate Director for the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) of the National 

 Cancer Institutes's (NCI) Division of Cancer Treatment, at the National Institutes of Health 

 (NIH). With me today is Dr. Gordon Cragg, Chief of DTP's Natural Products Branch, and 

 Dr. Francesca Grifo, a Program Manager in the International Studies Branch of the Fogarty 

 International Center (FIC). Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to 

 discuss the NCI's efforts to locate and develop medicinal compounds from plants to combat 

 cancer and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection and its sequelae. NCI is 

 exploring and supporting a broad spectrum of ways to combat these two diseases, from 

 prevention and diagnosis through treatment to rehabilitation and psychosocial care of patients. 

 Drug development from natural products is just one avenue of emphasis; but until we can 

 completely prevent cancer or HIV infection from occurring, it is an extremely important part 

 of our effort to develop and design more effective and less toxic treatments. 



In 1993, over 1 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and about 

 526,000 people will die of the disease. Since cancer incidence increases with age, most cases 

 occur in adults at mid-life or older. There has been a steady rise in the cancer mortality rate 

 in the United States in the last 50 years, with the major causes of this increase being lung, 

 prostate, and breast cancers. The impact of cancer in general on minority and underserved 

 populations is disproportionately great. 



AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was recognized as a distinctive syndrome over 

 ten years ago and since then NCI has been involved in multiple disciplines of AIDS research. 

 AIDS is not the primary mission of NCI; however, NCI leads the NIH's efforts in pediatric 

 AIDS clinical studies, making advances in the identification and evaluation of potential 

 therapies for HIV-infected children. Similarly, NCI heads efforts to develop therapies for 

 HIV-associated malignancies, and has developed an extensive and comprehensive program to 

 design and develop anti-HIV drug therapies. Following the discovery of the antiviral action 

 of AZT (azidothymidine), ddi (dideoxyinosine), and ddc (dideoxycytidine) in the intramural 

 NCI in the mid-1980's, the cancer drug screen was adapted for anti-HIV drug screening. 



For our natural products drug screening effort to be at all successful, we must have available 

 to us a multitude of species to study, and preservation of the species is critical to this effort. 

 Global consumption patterns, perverse policy incentives and population pressures threaten 

 biodiversity worldwide. In the countryside, exploitative resource management practices 

 deplete soil and contaminate water supplies; deforestation for farming, pasture and building 

 material leads to erosion and heavy flooding. The resulting disappearance of natural habitats 

 has profound economic, environmental and scientific consequences. Among the ultimate 

 consequences will be a loss of raw materials from which medicinal products might be 

 developed. 



