These enzymes were called the kinases and they were

These enzymes were called the ―kinases,‖ and they were soon
found to behave as molecular master switches within a cell.
Bishop and Varmus found a nearly identical version of viral src
lodged firmly in the normal cell’s genome. Viral src— the cancer-
causing gene — was cellular src on overdrive. precursor of a
cancer-causing gene — the ―proto - oncogene,‖ as Bishop and
Varmus called it — was a normal cellular gene.

Denis Parsons Burkitt
1911 - 1993
During World War II, Burkitt served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in
England and later in Kenya and Somaliland. After the war Burkitt decided his
future lay in medical service in the developing world and he moved to
Uganda. He eventually settled in Kampala and remained there until 1964.
Burkitt 'made two major contributions to medical science related to his
experience in Africa. The first was the description, distribution, and
ultimately, the etiology of a pediatric cancer that bears his name Burkitt's
lymphoma
His second major contribution came when, on his return to Britain, Burkitt
compared the pattern of diseases in African hospitals with Western diseases.
He concluded that many Western diseases which were rare in Africa were
the result of diet and lifestyle. He wrote a book Don't Forget Fibre in your
Diet , which was an international best-seller.

Henry Kaplan
1918-1984
Stanford Medical
Linear
Accelerator in
1955 and also in
the 1975 lab to
research cancer
viruses

Henry Kaplan
He is credited with
finding that leukemias
and cancers of the
lymph system in mice
were caused by a
latent virus activated
when radiation or
chemicals suppressed
the function of the
animal's normal
immune system in
1959

Cancer Theories
• By the 1960,s cancer was considered infectious, the
NCI has a large Special Virus Cancer Program and
Rous got the 1966 Nobel Prize
• 1970’s efforts to prove that retro viruses caused most
cancers failed (a few years later HIV)
• cancer-causing gene — the ―proto - oncogene,‖ as
Bishop and Varmus called it — was a normal cellular
gene. Mutations induced by chemicals or X-rays
caused cancer not by ―inserting‖ foreign genes into
cells, but by activating such endogenous proto-
oncogenes.

Genetics and Cancer
Cancer, in short, was not merely genetic in its origin; it
was genetic in its entirety. Abnormal genes governed
all aspects of cancer’s behavior. Cascades of aberrant
signals, originating in mutant genes, fanned out within
the cancer cell, promoting survival, accelerating growth,
enabling mobility, recruiting blood vessels, enhancing
nourishment, drawing oxygen — sustaining cancer’s
life.
These gene cascades, notably, were perversions of
signaling pathways used by the body under normal
circumstances.
Mukherjee, Siddhartha (2010-11-16). The Emperor of
All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (pp. 387-388).
Scribner. Kindle Edition.

Oncovirus
An oncovirus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from
studies of acutely transforming retroviruses in the 1950 – 60s. It now refers to
any virus with a DNA or RNA genome causing cancer and is synonymous
with "tumor virus" or "cancer virus". The vast majority of human and animal
viruses do not cause cancer, probably because of long-standing coevolution