Registry of Experimental Cancers of the National Cancer Institute 1 Harold L. Stewart,2 Thelma B. Dunn,2 John H. Schneider,3 Margaret K. Deringer,2 Sylvia D. Grieb,3 and Elisa Chavez 2 SUMMARY-This report describes the organization and functions of the Registry of Experimental Cancers and gives the chronology of events that led to its establishment. Currently, 21,500 accessions have been coded; the vast majority are spontaneous and induced cancers, chiefly of rodents, and also a wide variety of nonneoplastic diseases. Accessions are accepted from contributors working in laboratories in this country and abroad. The material is available for study by responsible scientists, and a limited number of study sets is available for ,loan on request.-J Natl cancer Inst 56: 447-450, 1976. CHRONOLOGY

During the latter half of the 1960's, members of the Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute (NCI) discussed a suitable disposition for permanent preservation of the pathologic material that had accumulated over the years from their experiments and those of others at NCI; it amounts to more than three quarters of a million autopsy records with accompanying histologic slides and paraffin blocks. The first accession is dated February 16, 1937. At that time, we established procedures to number protocols consecutively, indicate experimental methods, record pathologic observations, file histologic slides, and store paraffin blocks. Over the years, staff members, research fellows, and residents from the Laboratory of Pathology and Pathologic Anatomy Branch and investigators from other laboratories at NCI have contributed material to this collection. In addition to the accession of experimental cancers, an effort was made to collect spontaneous cancers and nonneoplastic lesions from untreated animals. In "geriatric experiments", untreated mice, rats, and Mastomys of different ages and various strains were necropsied, and histologic sections of normal organs and tissues and lesions encountered were prepared. Over the years, the collection of normal and pathologic material has grown so that now it is perhaps the largest in the world, and it is still growing because of new accessions from this country and abroad. Our apprehension about the fate of this priceless collection is readily understandable. The principal concern was that it not be destroyed or discarded, as has happened to other valuable collections when investigators resigned their positions or retired. The real impetus for the creation of the present Registry of Experimental Cancers came from a recommendation generated by a ten-man subcommittee on Tumor Type Collections and Atlases of Animal Pathology, under the chairmanship of Dr. M. F. Stanton, NCI. This subcommittee was one of four operating under the Committee on Service Facilities and Reference Standards, which was one of nine committees established by Dr. Abraham Cantarow and his associates of NCI, by direction of the National Advisory Cancer Council at its September 1966 meeting. The stated purpose was to "survey the Need for Support of Research in Chemical Carcinogenesis." The committees and subcommittees worked on the problems presented to them for the next 18 months. The "Report to the National Advisory Cancer Council" from The Discussion. Group on Chemical

Carcinogenesis was presented in March 1968 by Dr. Cantarow, and the Council unanimously endorsed the recommendations. The subcommittee on Tumor Type Collections and Atlases of Animal Pathology under Dr. M. F. Stanton's chairmanship comprised the following members: Dr. D. Cohen, University of Pennsylvania; Dr. C. C. Congdon, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Dr. W. H. Eyestone, National Institutes of Health (NIH); Dr. T. N. Fredrickson, University of Connecticut; Col. F. M. Garner, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; Dr. H. Radcliff, Philadelphia Zoo; Dr. U. Saffiotti, Chicago Medical School; Dr. K. C. Snell, NCI; and Dr. S. R. Wellings, University of Oregon. The following, written by Dr. Stanton, is reprinted fro.m the first page of the "Summary of I?iscussion on the Development of Tumor Type CollectIons as a Part of a Program in Chemical Carcinogenesis." At the request of Dr. Harold L. Stewart, Chairman of the Discussion Group for Service Facilities and Reference Standards in Chemical Carcinogenesis, nine scientists. . . met at NIH on June 7 and 8, 1967, to consider the merits and means of developing a source of pathological material primarily devoted to experimental chemical carcinogenesis. The Group agreed that this collection should be called The Tumor Type Collection for Experimental Carcinogenesis. The need, the scope, and the means of implementing such a collection as considered by the group are listed below. The need for the collection is predicated on the fact that no readily available source of tumor types in laboratory animals exist, and that the development and dissemination of such material would require the combined cooperation of a central organization with the various institutions that are devoted to cancer research. Chiefly the collection would serve the investigator in experimental chemical carcinogenesis through the dissemination of the collected material to satisfy his need for comparing directly the neoplasms and other pathological changes observed in his experiments with those of other experiments and with those that occur naturally. The inability of language and photographs to portray pathological lesions completely would be compensated best by actual circulation of well documented examples of material at hand. But in addition, the collection would serve as source material for the development of monographs on neoplasms of laboratory animals-an effort that would insure a permanent graphic record, most accessible to the greatest number of individuals. Furthermore, the collection would serve as a focal point for gathering material from all parts of the world on experimental carcinogenesis and establishing standards of reference in regard to nomenclature· that would enable investigators to compare the results of diverse experiments and refine and characterize their own experiments more thoroughly than has been possible in the past. Received July 8, 1975; accepted September 22, 1975. Registry of Experimental Cancers, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bethesda, Md. 20014. 3 Office of the Director, National Cancer Institute. 1

2

JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE, VOL. 56, NO.2, FEBRUARY 1976

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447

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STEWART ET AL.

The collection would provide diagnostic consultation servo ice and advice to pathologists working in experimental carcinogenesis, and it would serve as a means of training pathologists in the recognition of neoplastic and other diseases in laboratory animals-an area in which there is an increasing shortage of experienced personnel. If established as a cumulative registry of data' from experiments in chemical carcinogenesis, it would offer leads to epidemiological investigations, particularly through evidence of variation in naturally occurring tumors that might result from environmental factors. Finally, the collection would serve asa permanent archive of notable experiments, retaining in tangible form some of the past and future historical events in cancer research.

The subcommittee considered many of the details for implementation of the Registry, including the scope of the collection, the data necessary for accessions, crossindexing, automatic retrieval system, advisory committees, preparation of stud~ sets, traini~g-in-residence, a cl~aring house for informatIOn concernIng effects of particular chemicals, accessions of polymer-embedded material for electron microscopic study, priority for collection of rodent tumors, location of collection at NIH, and staffing. Following these recommendations and beginning in May 1968, a series of memos passed between, and a number of actions were taken by, the Director of the NCI and his staff, the Chief of the Pathologic Anatomy Branch and Laboratory of Pathology and his staff. Plans were devised and discussed at various conferences; all of these have been carefully described and fully annotated in a document filed with the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, NIH. On March 19, 1970, the Director of NCI established the Registry administratively in his office, with routine services to be dr~wn fr~m Carcinogenesis, Etiology, and space was alloted In Budding 37, NCI. Dr. Thelma B. Dunn and Dr. Harold L. Stewart were appointed as consultants and later were joined by Dr. Margaret K. Deringer, ?iologist: The coding system for records of the pathologIC matenal and for the computer program was worked out by Dr. John .H. Schneider and Mrs. Sylvia D. Grieb in conference WIth the Registry staff and others, beginning in October 1970. In January 1972, the Registry was administratively transferred from the Office of the Director to the Office of the Associate Scientific Director (now Associate Director) for Carcinogenesis, Etiology, (now Cancer Cause and Prevention), in which it is presently assigned to the Head, Tumor Pathology Section. The Registry was moved twice to rented space: at 8710 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, in April 1972, and at 4905 Del Ray Avenue, Bethesda, in May 1975. FUNCTIONS

The functions of the Registry are a) the storage of material and information on representative cancers and other lesions of laboratory animals, and b) the use of such information for educational purposes and research. Histologic slides, paraffin blocks, wet tissues, information in autopsy protocols, photographs, lantern slides, and reprints are obtained from present and former members of the staff of NCI and from investigators in this country and abroad. An "Accession Data" form, on which pertinent information can be recorded, is forwarded to each contributor for his use in the submission of material to the Registry.

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The Registry comprises roughly 21,500 accessions from 13 species of animals: approximately 14,500 mice, 6,000 rats, and 600 Mastomys; the remaining 400 are distributed among the chicken, fish, frog, guinea pig, hamster, man, marsupial, monkey, and rabbit. The main index document is a computer print-out. of the entries ordered, by tissue and lesion; this permits rapid, easy identification, location, and retrieval of slides and experimental protocols on the basis of the type of tissues and lesions (figs. 1, 2). Other types of indexes (sorted by etiologic agent, animal type) can easily be printed. Entries in the indexes are in easy-to-search English words, phrases, and letters. They are designed to be immediately comprehensible to even casual users without reference to special code manuals. The data for the computer can be key-punched, typed on a keyboard linked directly to a computer by telephone, or typed on a fine grade of paper with the use of an optical character reader head that imprints characters to be read by an optical character reader. Entries are corrected by an on-line text-editing program called WYLBUR. Corrected entries are converted to computerprinted indexes via special computer programs written in Program Language # 1. A number of abbreviated (or coded) "short forms" are used to speed data entry. The computer has been programmed to expand the codes to readable English terms and understandable abbreviations in the printed indexes. There are currently about 21,500 entries in the index. The following categories of information can be listed for each entry; the number of characters assigned are in parentheses: Investigator (3)-an identification of the source and collection Experiment number (5)-the key for the location of the com· plete description of the experiment in the investigator's records Autopsy number (7)-the key for slides, paraffin blocks, autopsy protocols, experiment number, and investigator Type of animal (4)-the key to the experimental animal Tissue or site (19)-an indication of the tissue or site of the lesion Lesion (33)-the entry for the diagnosis Origin (6)-an indication whether the lesion is spontaneous or induced, a transplant of a tumor or a metastasis Name of agent (28)-an indication of the specific name of the chemical, virus, type of radiation, and/or hormone used Route of administration (l4)-information on whether the agent was given by mouth, sc, iv, or other route Vehicle (15)-an indication of what the agent was contained in Sex (1) Age (4) Strain or stock (16) Comments (65}-inclusion of material that does not fit into the tabulation, for unusual circumstances or types of experiments, and for references to publications and photographs. Systemized Nomenclature of Pathology (SNOP) (1) numbers for topography and morphology and for etiology and function, where applicable, can be inserted in Comments. Dr. Thelma B. Dunn has adapted SNOP numbers to the mouse.

The first eight items for each entry are listed one-to-a4 For print-out NIH/DF-73-032, contact National Information Service, Computer Products Office, Springfield, Va. 22151.

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REGISTRY OF EXPERIMENTAL CANCERS

line in one computer print-out (fig. 1). The remaining experimental details (route, vehicle, sex, age, strain, and comments) can be found in the same sequence on a second print-out with the use of line numbers in the right margin of the first print-out to match line numbers in the left margin of the second print-out (fig. 2). The material indexed is not designed for statistical correlations. Ours is a pathology registry, which aims to collect all sorts of disease entities in rodents. The collection is available to investigators who wish to study at the Registry.

____________ ,1fHOLOGY

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The Registry has prepared a limited number of study sets of slides with accompanying brochures on neoplasms of lung, intestine, and hematopoietic and lymphoreticular tissues; these study sets are available for loan, free of charge.

REFERENCES (1) College of American Pathologists Committee on Nomenclature and Classification of Disease: Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology, Chicago, College of American Pathologists, 1965. 439 pp

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Registry of experimental cancers of the National Cancer Institute.

Registry of Experimental Cancers of the National Cancer Institute 1 Harold L. Stewart,2 Thelma B. Dunn,2 John H. Schneider,3 Margaret K. Deringer,2 Sy...
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