ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interest of the scientific and medical community into the further exploration of the interrelationship between the thymus gland, and perhaps other lymphoid tissues and aging, antioncogenesis, and various pathological states. It presents further evidence showing the tin-thymus-cancer linkage and develops several hypothetical premises. The medical approach to cancer has relied upon therapeutic intervention after onset, with very little attention to preventative measures prior to such onset. Present techniques rely on surgical removal and/or the use of ionizing radiation and chemical agents. It is recognized that a number, and possibly a large number, of carcinogens are found in foodstuffs. Genotoxic carcinogens, those that form covalent adducts with DNA, are known. Szent-Gyorgyi et al. isolated two substances from the thymus gland, one a cell growth promoter termed “promine”, and the other a growth retarder, designated “retine”. Isolation was through methanol extraction followed by complex chromatographic separation.
